Six Months
by trustxbelieve
Summary: Beca's a cynical wedding columnist. Jesse's a heartbroken composer. Their friends might think they're perfect for each other, but they think otherwise. After a drunken mistake, can Beca and Jesse get along long enough to get what they both want? Or is this just a disaster waiting to happen? [AU]
1. Prologue

**Just saw I hit 1001 reviews. You guys are awesome, I'm in shock. So, here it is! The prologue to the new story. Hope you all enjoy it.**

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

"The writing sample you sent in from college was excellent," Aubrey Posen, editor-in-chief of the New York Times, said as she looked over the application in her hands. "Do you have any recent samples?"

"No, I've been too busy producing music," Beca Mitchell said in a bored tone, in absolutely no mood to be doing this interview.

"Hmph, well there seems to be no record of that."

"I'm fully aware of that, thanks," she said shortly. "Am I hired?"

"Well," Aubrey said, glaring at Beca over the folder. "The attitude is a bit much, and those earrings have got to go; but, we need a new writer and your dad was one of my favorite professors when I attended Barden, so I suppose your hired."

"Great, so will I be writing for the music section?"

"No, we have someone for that. You'll be covering weddings," Aubrey said.

"I'm sorry, weddings? No way."

"That's all we have open right now, Beca," Aubrey said, her professional tone having a bit of a smug edge to it. "It's either this, or attempt to find a job at another newspaper with such a weak portfolio."

"Fine," Beca huffed. "Thanks."

"See you bright and early tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, okay," she rolled her eyes as she grabbed her bag and left.

* * *

"Jesse, I have to tell you something," Marissa said as her and her boyfriend of four years, Jesse Swanson, were walking up to their apartment.

"Okay, tell me inside," he said as he opened the door and reached for the lights, but she stopped him.

"Jess, it's over," she said calmly.

"What's over?"

"This," she said, gesturing between them. "I'm just not fully in it anymore. My heart isn't all there."

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked, in shock as he stepped into the dark apartment which he knew was filled with their family and friends.

"I didn't want to tell you like this, but I've been seeing someone."

"Oh, have you now?"

"I met my boss's son at a company party, and we really hit it off," she said. "Why aren't the lights on?"

"Surprise!" Bumper Allen, one of Jesse's friends from college, yelled out when she flipped the light switch.

"Oh, oh my God," Marissa said, covering her face in shock. "What's going on?"

"I was going to propose to you tonight, but that's not happening anymore. What you can do tonight is get all your shit together so you can move out, while I sit here and drink and figure out if I can return the engagement ring," Jesse said calmly as he walked over to the small bar in their apartment. "Oh, by the way, Happy Birthday, bitch."

* * *

**So, this story will not be as long as the other one. I'm thinking it's going to be more on the short side, maybe no more than 15 chapters. Well see, given the fact that my first Pitch Perfect story was only a one-shot and it turned into a 44 chapter story. But I don't think that'll happen here. Let me know what you guys think of it. I like how it's turning out so far, so hopefully you all will feel the same :)**


	2. Chapter One

**I know, the prologue didn't give much. Hopefully you all enjoy the first chapter :)**

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

"Beca, can I ask you a question?" Chloe Beale, the fashion/gossip columnist for the Times and one of Beca's friends from college, asked as she walked over to Beca's cubicle. "Why does the article on the Jameson wedding say its written by 'Allie Hamilton'?"

"Because I refuse to use my real name for this shit," Beca said simply.

"Isn't Allie Hamilton the character from The Notebook? You don't watch movies."

"I looked it up," she shrugged. "Cheesiest romantic film female characters. This one won."

"You're very odd," Chloe shook her head. "Anyway, my engagement party is tonight."

"Yes, I know. Yes, I'll be there. No, I will not sing," Beca said.

"Some of Tom's friends from work will be there. I know of one who is recently single, super into music, and extremely hot."

"Don't start, Chloe. Last time you set me up with someone, he had a bar going through his nose and asked if he could bite my neck."

"He looked like your type," she shrugged. "You've got to put yourself out there. People are going to think you're asexual."

"Do I look like I give a shit what people think?"

"No."

"Good. No more of setting me up."

* * *

"Dude, you have to come tonight," Tom said as he leaned against the doorframe of Jesse's office.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "I'm just not up to going out yet."

"It's been two months. She's gone, let her contract herpes from the guy."

"I'm still all over the place from moving into a new apartment and everything."

"You're coming. Chloe's got some hot friends," Tom said with a wink. "Plus, her friend from LA who's working at the Times with her is definitely your type."

"How so?"

"Obsessed with music."

"That's it? How the hell is that my type?"

"Well, I don't want to give too much away," Tom said and laughed uneasily. He's met Beca a few times, and she's not the most welcoming person to be around.

"She's definitely some fat chick with cankles," Bumper said as he passed by. "Dude, Franklin's asking for the arrangement you've been working on. Why he sent me over to tell you is beyond me. I'm a lawyer, not the messenger boy."

"Almost finished," Jesse said before turning his attention back to Tom. "Is she some fat chick with cankles?"

"No, she's really tiny. Tinier than Chloe. And maybe a little scary. She's got this ear spike thing through her ear, and her boss has been on her ass about it but she refuses to take it out."

"I'm intrigued," Jesse nodded.

"She's not the nicest person. She fits in well with New Yorkers, lets put it that way."

"She good in bed?" Bumper asked.

"How the hell would I know?"

"Isn't Chloe a freak? Maybe you have a hot threesome going on," Bumper said, thrusting his hips in the air.

"Don't even," Tom warned.

* * *

Beca walked into the small bar/restaurant that Chloe and Tom were having their engagement party in. She made sure to get her hellos to Chloe's family out of the way before she walked over to Fat Amy and Stacie.

Stacie was another one of Beca and Chloe's friends from college who went to law school in New York, which shocked the hell out of Beca and Chloe since they didn't know that in between all the times they walked in on Stacie having sex with various men, she was actually studying and doing really well in college.

Fat Amy was the food columnist for the Times. Amy couldn't understand how Beca hated her job at the Times so much, because she loved it there. Beca tried to explain that she hated weddings, and that Amy got to eat at restaurants for free. There was a big difference.

"Ay, Flatbutt, you finally showed up," Amy yelled as Beca walked over. "And you're actually dressed nicely. Wow, look at you."

"Chloe made me wear it," she sighed as she waved down the bartender and ordered a beer.

"Your butt isn't that flat anymore, Not-so-flatbutt," Amy said, bending over to get a good look of Beca's behind in the black bandage dress she was wearing.

"Your boobs look fantastic too," Stacie said. "I'm impressed."

"Oh good, Beca, you're here!" Chloe said as she ran over and hugged Beca. "And you wore the dress, excellent."

"Because I knew you carry around a spare dress that's even worse than half of the stuff you force me to wear," Beca said with a smile. "I'm not happy in it though."

"But you look hot and that's what counts. I think Jesse is over there somewhere."

"That's great, Chloe. What did I say about setting me up?"

"He's a really nice guy, Beca. Give him a chance," she said. "I have to go mingle, but you should do the same."

"Nope, I'm quite content by the bar," she said as she tapped her head on the bar. "I'll be spending the night here."

"Chloe had some hot friends in college, wow," Bumper said as he surveyed the room. "And one rather large one. Holy shit, look at her."

"I think she's a co-worker," Jesse said as he looked at the woman in question who was standing next to one extremely tall brunette, and one who looked like she could be legally considered a midget. Jesse had a feeling that was Beca from the way Tom described her. "I think the small one is a friend from college, though."

"She is _tiny_," Bumper said. "Could work out in some guy's favor. Looks like she could just stand up instead of dropping down to her knees."

"_Dude_," Jesse said, pinching the bridge of his nose as he shook his head, trying to unhear what Bumper just said. "You have no filter."

"No I do not."

"I'm going to introduce myself, get this over with," Jesse said as he started to walk over to Beca when he noticed she was finally alone, standing there and people watching. "You must be Beca."

"And you are?"

"Jesse," he said, holding his hand out for her to shake. She just stared at until he brought it back to his side. "I noticed that scary ear spike you had through your ear."

"You're Tom's friend," she nodded.

"And you're Chloe's friend."

"Well, Chloe was kind of accurate about her description of you."

"And what was that?"

"Extremely hot and extremely single."

"So you think I'm extremely hot," he smirked.

"No, but you look like someone who is extremely single," she said dryly, taking a sip of her beer.

"Tom was kind of right too then."

"I'm sure."

"He said you were really tiny. But I'm pretty sure you're legally required to be in a booster seat," he said. "Can you reach the pedals in your car?"

"This how you pick up all the girls? Now I know why you're single."

"Recently single, actually," he said, taking a sip of his own beer to try to mask the bitterness he heard in his own voice. Beca heard it too, but chose to ignore it.

"Oh, even better," she said boredly. "Listen, I really don't know why they thought setting us up would be smart. However, you are better than most of the guys Chloe has tried setting me up with."

"Really?"

"I wouldn't be so smug about that," she smirked. "Last guy she set me up with wanted to suck my blood."

"Sounds like he thought he was Edward Cullen."

"Who is that?"

"Twilight?" Jesse said and she just shrugged, having no idea what he was talking about. "It was a huge movie franchise over the past couple years."

"Oh. I hate movies," she said offhandedly and lifted her beer bottle to her mouth before pausing when she saw his wide eyes and open mouth. "You okay?"

"You hate movies?"

"Um, yeah. Way too predictable."

"Yeah, there's no way this would work out," Jesse shook his head. "How could you hate movies? That's like hating puppies."

"I just get really bored and never make it to the end."

"That's a disgrace. You need a movie education. You need a movie-cation."

"Sure, whatever you say, buddy," she rolled her eyes.

* * *

"So, you and Jesse looked cozy last night," Chloe said with a smirk the next day at work.

"Yeah, no, that's not going to happen," Beca said, shaking her head as she got up from her desk.

"What? Why not?"

"He's really irritating, and cocky. An arrogant son of a bitch, if you will."

"You've dated guys with worse qualities, Beca," Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, all guys _you_ set me up with," Beca shot back.

"You really should give him a chance, Beca. He's a nice guy."

"That's great for him. I have to go give Aubrey this article that I want to vomit all over, so if you would excuse me," Beca said.

"I swear, sometimes I wonder if there's something wired wrong in your brain."

"I had the romantic and sweet part of my brain taken out after my parent's divorce. Figured it would be easier."

"Becs."

"Just, leave it," she shrugged before walking away.

* * *

"Was I right? Did she have cankles?" Bumper asked as he sat on Jesse's desk.

"Dude, don't you have work to do?" Jesse said with a sigh as he moved his sheet music out from under Bumper.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to do it."

"You're the worst lawyer ever."

"Don't I know it," he smirked. "Answer the question, Swanson."

"She did not have cankles. She's tiny, just like Tom said. Dude you saw her."

"From a distance," he shrugged. "And? What else."

"And she's pretty hot," Jesse shrugged. "Mysterious, and looks like the type of girl who can completely rip you a new asshole and not feel bad about doing it."

"She sounds butch," Bumper said. "Figures. I always knew Chloe was into girls."

"She's not, and Chloe doesn't like girls," Jesse rolled his eyes. "I know you don't enjoy doing work, but I have to do mine."

"How was last night with Beca?" Tom asked when he walked into Jesse's office, making Jesse groan and slam his head down on his desk. "That bad?"

"No, it was fine. She's just not my type," Jesse said. "Guys, I really need to get to work."

"Since when do you have a type? You've dated every kind of girl since I've known you."

"She's the type that doesn't like movies."

"Oh right, forgot about that," Tom nodded. "You guys looked like you really hit it off last night, though."

"We stood at the bar and drank and spat insults at each other the whole time."

"Sounds like how my dates usually go," Bumper said.

"Beca's a tough cookie to crack, but once you get through, she's really one of the best people I know," Tom said before leaving, taking Bumper with him to let Jesse get back to work.

* * *

**So, obviously this story is AU. It's based on What Happens in Vegas and 27 Dresses. You will see familiar lines from both movies since I have the uncontrollable urge to quote movies, especially these two. Hopefully you all enjoy the story enough to keep reading, especially since I have a whole bunch of chapters finished already lol.**

**So, I'm going into my last final and I'm beyond stressed. I figured I'd update before so when I leave the test complete mind-raped, I will feel a little better about myself lol.**

**Let me know what you think, I love hearing everyone's opinion :)**


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

* * *

Beca was tired. All she wanted to do was crawl into her bed and sleep all day on her day off, but no. Chloe had insisted on her coming out to lunch to discuss wedding stuff. The last thing Beca wanted to do is talk about weddings after attending _three_ of them this weekend.

"Beca, finally," Chloe said as she stood up from the table and walked over to her. "Took you long enough."

"I had a long night, Chlo," she yawned as she sat down across from her friend. "Too many weddings."

"I know this is the last thing you want to talk about on your day off," Chloe said sympathetically.

"Ain't that the truth," she mumbled as she looked over at the two extra place settings. "We expecting anyone else?"

"Uh, just Tom and Jesse," Chloe said as she stared intently at the menu. "I think I'll get a salad."

"Chloe," Beca whined. "I told you, it's not happening. Stop trying to set me up with him."

"Actually, it's not because of that at all," she said and stood up again when she saw Tom walking in with Jesse. "Hey guys."

"Why is it okay for them to be late but not me," she said as she waved at them, in no mood to stand up.

"Because I'm the ever loving fiancé, and I was his ride," Tom said. "Always a pleasure to see you, Beca."

"Right," she snorted. "I'm like a ray of fucking sunshine."

"So, now that you're both here," Chloe said, getting straight to business. "We want you two to be the maid of honor and best man."

"Really?" Beca and Jesse said at the same time, acknowledging each other for the first time with just a weird look.

"Yeah," she nodded. "The wedding won't be for a while, so maybe you two can learn to like each other by then."

"Doubtful," Beca muttered.

"Well, there's a bunch of things you guys are going to be forced together for," Chloe said.

"That's great, Chloe. Great way to put it," Tom said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm just saying," she said. "I don't want to look at my wedding pictures and feel the hatred coming from the two of you. I want to feel the love coming from me and Tom."

"You're going to feel Tom's love for the rest of your lives, a little hatred will do you some good," Beca muttered.

"We have Benji's wedding in a few weeks, maybe you two can go together."

"Who's Benji?" Beca asked as Jesse shook his head 'no'.

"The Applebaum wedding," Chloe said and Beca nodded in understanding.

"Friend from work, one of my old friends," Jesse said. "I'm going alone."

"Everyone needs a date for a wedding, Jesse."

"No, he doesn't," Beca said. "You really need to relax with this, Chloe. Your unnatural urge to set people up is becoming a serious problem."

"Ugh, fine," she said, crossing her arms and pouting. "Let's just eat."

Chloe had walked to the restaurant and insisted on going with Tom in his two-seater BMW, leaving Beca to drive Jesse back to his apartment. The car ride was awkwardly silent, with the exception of Jesse giving Beca his address so she could put it in her navigation, until Jesse began playing with the radio stations.

"Don't touch the radio station, dork," she said, not taking her eyes off the road.

"Passenger has control of the radio. It's the rules of the road," he smirked.

"Not in my car. In my car, I have control of everything," she said as she played the CD she has in her car of her mixes.

"This is really good, who did this?" he asked after a few minutes.

"Me."

"No, seriously."

"Me."

"Aren't you a writer for the Times?"

"Yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "Your point?"

"What section do you write? Do you know Allie Hamilton?"

"You read the weddings section?" she asked, trying to bite back a laugh.

"Well, I got into the weird habit of it when I thought of proposing to my ex," he said, feeling the back of his neck heat up from embarrassment because he knew Beca would laugh at him for admitting that. "I read a few of her articles, they were pretty good."

"Yeah, she's a bitch," Beca said, trying not to smirk.

"Figures. Can't be any worse than you, right?" he said.

"We're about the same."

"Wow, poor girl."

"Hey!" Beca said, feeling a bit offended even know she was fully aware that she was a bitch. "Maybe I have a good reason to be a bitch."

"There's never a good reason to be a bitch."

"There's different types," she huffed. "There's the bitches who are just bitches because they know they can, and then there's the bitches who are bitches because life made them that way."

"Which category do you fall under?"

"Guess you'll just have to figure that one out yourself. Here's your apartment, asshole," she said as she stopped and unlocked the doors. "Always a pleasure, Jesse."

"Yeah, wish I could say the same," he grumbled as he got out of the car and watched Beca speed away.

* * *

"Are you sure you can't find someone to bring?" Benji said as he walked down the hallway with Jesse the next day. "I mean, not to sound cheap or anything, but it's like $200 a plate and you put down a guest, and it's too late to change it."

"Because that's when I was still with Marissa," Jesse sighed. "You seriously want me to find a date?"

"Well, yeah. You'll have fun. Jessica wants you to bring someone, she doesn't like seeing you lonely and unhappy."

"Fine, I'll find a date," he said. "I am not lonely and unhappy, by the way."

"The bachelor party is coming up next weekend. Maybe you'll meet someone there."

"No," Jesse said firmly. "And no, none of you are going to try to set me up. I saw what happened with that at Taylor's bachelor party last year. Bad things happen when you have sex with a stripper."

"Didn't Bumper get crabs?"

"Yeah," Jesse said. "But I was talking about how Hat ended up getting handcuffed to the bed and having all of his stuff stolen."

"Right, forgot about that," Benji nodded as he turned into his office. "Well, think about it."

"Yeah, I will," he said, but he really wouldn't.

* * *

Jesse started getting nervous. The bachelor/bachelorette party was coming up this weekend and he knew that the boys would try to set him up with some random girl. He didn't want that, but none of them understood the meaning of the word 'no'. Unable to sit in his apartment anymore, he went down to the bar that Chloe and Tom's engagement party was in to try to clear his head by making it fuzzier with alcohol. When he walked in, it was like an answer to his prayers.

Beca was sitting there by herself at the bar, drinking and staring at her laptop at what looked like a blank word document.

"Is this how you write all your articles?" he asked as he sat down next to her and ordered two drinks – one for him and one for her.

"Only the ones I really like," she said dryly. "Are you stalking me?"

"No, I happen to enjoy this bar."

"I happen to enjoy being alone, so if you could leave," she said.

"Come to Vegas with me this weekend," Jesse said abruptly. Beca turned to face him, shock written all over her face as she sputtered to reply.

"What? Dude, no. We barely even know each other," she said.

"I'll pay for it all, you won't have to spend anything. Listen, all the guys are going to try to set me up with a stripper and that's just not happening."

"That's just awkward, no."

"You're going to pass up an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas?" he said, raising his eyebrow at her.

"Can you even afford that?"

"Please," he said, rolling his eyes. "You think I'm stupid enough to offer it if I couldn't?"

"Desperate men do stupider things," she smirked. "If all the guys are going, why are you bringing me? Isn't that usually like a guys only thing?"

"Jessica and Benji are doing a joint bachelor-bachelorette party in Vegas."

"That's stupid."

"Whatever," he shrugged. "Everyone's going to be together, and I just don't want to deal with people."

"But you want to deal with me?"

"Surprisingly, you're a lot better to be around than most of the people I know. Especially my friends when they're insisting on setting me up. Usually that person ends up being a stripper."

"I'm assuming we'll be sharing a room?"

"You assume correctly."

"Well, I'd be stupid to pass up a free trip to Vegas. Hope there's a couch in there, or you'll be sleeping in the tub," she said as she began to walk away from him. "See you this weekend."

* * *

**I'm so glad everyone seems to be liking it so far, even though it's only up to the second chapter and there's not much going on still lol.**

**Let me know your thoughts on the chapter :)**


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

* * *

Jesse bought Beca a plane ticket for the seat next to him, and called the hotel to let them know his reservation change from one person to two. He got Beca's address from Tom, which was a project and a half since he started giving Jesse the third degree as to why he wanted Beca's address, and honked when he was outside of her apartment.

"Such a gentleman," Beca said as she walked out of the apartment and up to his car. "Honking in front of my apartment."

"Hey, I'm paying here. Wasn't getting out of my car," he rolled his eyes.

"Is the trunk open?" she asked he nodded. She walked around to the back of car and opened the trunk, finding it filled with crap. "Dude, where would you like me to put my stuff?"

"There's room."

"Yeah, maybe if I had a garbage bag for luggage."

"Pain the ass," Jesse said as he finally got out of the car. "There's room, see."

"No, I don't. I must be blind," she said sarcastically as she rested her suitcase on his car. "I have two more in the doorway."

"Just throw it all in the backseat," he sighed, taking her bag from her and closing the trunk. "Hurry up or we're going to miss the flight."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, walking over to get the rest of her stuff.

"I didn't picture you to be the type of girl who had a ton of luggage," he said when she sat down in the front seat and he looked back to see his backseat filled with her luggage. "Or designer luggage for that matter."

"They were a graduation gift," she said. "And what did you expect? A couple Hefty bags?"

"Well, yeah," he said with a smirk. "Or like one small thing filled with clothes."

"It takes effort to look like you don't give a shit," she said, slipping her sunglasses on. "Are you going to start driving or do you want to make us late?"

"This is going to be a fun weekend," he muttered as he pulled away from the curb.

* * *

"Jesse, there you are," Benji said as Jesse and Beca walked into the lobby together. They had gotten to Vegas two hours ago and were all checked in, and meeting everyone for dinner before they go to the clubs on the strip. "You met someone here already?"

"Uh, no," Jesse said as he grabbed Beca's arm to pull her close. "This is Beca. Chloe's friend that Tom set me up with."

"Oh yeah, I remember you mentioning that," Benji said as he shook Beca's hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah. Uh, congratulations?" she said awkwardly. "Sorry about kind of party crashing, but he didn't want to come out to Vegas by himself, the big baby."

"No, it's fine," Benji said happily. "Let's go, everyone's inside."

Jesse placed his hand on the small of Beca's back as they followed Benji into the restaurant where everyone was sitting. Beca didn't recognize anyone. This was going to be sufficiently awkwardly.

"No Chloe or Tom?" she whispered to Jesse.

"No, only the bridal party got invited. Plus you."

"Great," Beca rolled her eyes. "Now I really have to stay with you."

"You make it sound like such a bad thing."

"Well," she said, trailing off. "I guess I can't complain too much since you're paying."

"Exactly," he said, resting his arm on the back of her chair.

"Are you the dwarf from the bar who was with that large blonde and the stripper," Bumper asked Beca while everyone was eating.

"Excuse me?" Beca said, almost spitting out her drink. "Did you just call me a dwarf?"

"Yes, because you are one?"

"Says the garden gnome, you little troll. Who the hell are you?"

"Bumper Allen," he said. "Best lawyer there is."

"You haven't won any cases yet, dude," Jesse said.

"I haven't lost any either," he countered.

"You're doing real well for yourself," Beca rolled her eyes.

"And what do you do? Work for the freak show in Coney Island?"

"I work for the New York Times actually," Beca said boredly, getting annoyed talking to him. "I'm a journalist."

"What do you write?"

"Articles," she said vaguely.

"No shit," he rolled his eyes.

"Do you know Allie Hamilton, I love her work," Jessica said.

"Yeah," Beca nodded, trying not to laugh. "I do."

"I called about having an article written on our wedding, but I haven't received a call back."

"I'm sure she'll do it," Beca nodded.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I remember her saying something about the Applebaum wedding," she said, trying not to give herself away.

"Oh, good!" Jessica clapped excitedly. "I love her work, she writes so beautifully."

"Mhm," Beca said, taking a sip of her beer.

* * *

After the restaurant, they went to Pure to begin the night. Beca and Jesse were sitting at one of the tables outside, drinking beers.

"I still can't believe you don't like movies," he said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, well, believe it," she rolled her eyes.

"Movies are the greatest things ever created."

"No they're not."

"Okay, they're the second greatest thing ever created. After me, of course," he said and smirked.

"Not even," she said, looking out at the busyness below them.

"So, we're just going to sit here and ignore each other?"

"Sounds like a good night to me," she nodded.

"That's the thanks I get?"

"Dude, I'm doing _you_ a favor. I could easily drop your ass, buy a ticket home, and let you catch an STD from a dirty girl your little gnome friend tries to set you up with. I wouldn't think twice about doing that."

"Fine, let's just get drunk," he mumbled. "Maybe you'll be more tolerable."

"Now that's something I can do."

* * *

"I got fired from my dream job," she said as she took the shot that was in front of her as she sat at the bar with Jesse in some club. Beca motioned for the bartender to keep them coming.

"I got dumped on my ass by my girlfriend of four years," he countered, taking a shot as well.

"Did I tell you that my bosses never officially put me as a producer for all the stuff I worked on? So there's no paper work saying that I did anything, just pay stubs saying I worked there." Another shot.

"Did I forget to mention that I planned the most elaborate proposal ever for her in front of all our friends and family, and she decided to tell me that she was sleeping with her boss's son, who was at said elaborate proposal." Another shot.

"Oh wow," Beca laughed. "That's a rough one. I was going to say I got stuck working for fucking Aubrey who is out to get me."

"Marissa took my dog. Which was mine, until she said it was ours, and now it's hers."

"That's depressing. Take another shot," she said, taking her own advice.

* * *

"I fall in the category of life making me a bitch," she said drunkenly as she leaned on him in the VIP section of a club she doesn't even remember getting into. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and waited for her to continue. "I've been hurt, so I took myself out of the game."

"That's no reason to give up. You never know if you'll find the right person. I've been hurt a lot too, but I still have hope."

"That's because you're annoyingly happy over everything," she said. "It's rough feeling like life has given you a bad hand to deal with. I just didn't want to deal with it anymore."

"You can't give up, Beca," he said, turning her head and looking into her eyes, which were extremely blurry. "You're a great girl."

"No, I'm not," she laughed, turning her head away from him. "If I ever get married, I pity the idiot."

"He'd be a lucky guy."

* * *

"Do you take Beca to be your wife?" a man dressed up as Elvis said as he stood in front of Beca and Jesse who were hysterical laughing. Bumper was in the back hooking up with one of Jessica's single friends.

"Yeah," Jesse said, nodding quickly. "I've got a ring, it's a nice ring. A fucking expensive ring."

"He's a got ring!" Beca said and started laughing. "I take him too, to be my wife."

"No, no, no. You're the wife, I'm the husband," Jesse said as he slipped the ring on Beca's finger and looked at Elvis. "Can we make out now?"

"Yes, you are now man and wife," Elvis said.

"Oh good," Jesse said, grabbing Beca's face and bringing it to his so he could kiss her.

* * *

"You two look happy," a man with a camera said. "Would you like a video to remember your time at Vegas?"

"Yes!" Beca said happily. "We're _married_."

"I'm gonna love her, and I'm going to provide for her, because we're married."

"We're married, wooh!"

"Marvelous," the man said. "Another happy couple getting hitched in Vegas."

"We're going to go have suite sex now," Jesse said, picking Beca up bridal style, as he yelled out his room number to get the video delivered.

"You have to sleep in the tub, mister," Beca said, poking his chest. "That was the deal."

"But we're married now. So it's okay," he said as he dropped Beca to the floor and reached for his key. He fumbled a bit trying to put it in, and it didn't help that Beca kept kissing his neck.

"Oh okay, good reason," she said as she fell into the room.

* * *

"Dude, what the fuck," Jeses said as he walked off the elevator with Bumper. "I woke up in bed with Beca, naked, and she had a ring on her finger."

"Why'd you bring a ring here?"

"That's besides the point. We're married. I don't remember any of it."

"Well, you can't get divorced here," Bumper said as he filled his plate with bacon from the breakfast buffet. "You have to get divorced where you live. Besides, you don't want a divorce, you want an annulment."

"See, what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas. You pay for it when you get home," Jesse sighed, rubbing his eyes in frustration.

"Incoming," Bumper said as he sat down and saw Beca coming off from the elevator, looking like a hungover mess. "She looks like she had a rough night."

"Yeah, can't imagine why," Jesse grumbled as he caught her eye and she headed over to the table. "Hey Beca."

"We need to talk," she said bluntly.

"About what?"

"About this," she said, showing him her left hand that now had a new edition. A wedding ring. The engagement ring he bought for Marissa and had planned on pawning in Vegas, to be more specific.

"Ah, right, that," Jesse said, getting up from the table. "Let's talk about that then."

They awkwardly walked over to the slot machines and sat down. Beca began to play one until he decided to talk, because she had no idea what to say.

"So, we're married," he said.

"Seems that way," she nodded.

"Bumper was saying we have to get an annulment back in New York, we can't do it here."

"An annulment?"

"Yeah, it'll erase the marriage, like it never happened," Jesse explained before looking at her. "That's what you want, right?"

"Oh, yeah," she nodded, looking back at the machine. "That's even better than a divorce. That's great, don't want to be married to you, anyway."

"Why not?" Jesse asked.

"Please, we wouldn't work," Beca rolled her eyes. "You're annoyingly optimistic, and arrogant, and you have a weird movie obsession."

"Like you're any better," he scoffed, stopping her from insulting him anymore. "You've got the biggest chip on your shoulder, you're angry at the world, and spending five minutes with you would make even the happiest person question whether they want to continue living or not."

"Wow, that was harsh," Beca said, standing up from the seat. "Didn't think you had it in you, Swanson."

"I didn't," he tried but sighed when he saw the coldness in her eyes. "Whatever."

"Have Tom have Chloe call me when you get your shit together," Beca said, beginning to walk away from him.

"Oh, good," Jesse mumbled as he sat down at the machine Beca just vacated and placed one of her quarters in it. "Smooth, Jesse. Real smooth."

He pulled the lever and got up to leave, until he heard the ringing of the machine and the sound of a siren. He turned back and saw that he hit the jackpot. The $5 Million jackpot.

"Oh my God," Jesse said, not prepared for Bumper to tackle him to the ground.

"You're rich, dude! Holy fuck, you're loaded!"

"Congratulations, Jesse," Benji said as he walked over to Jesse to help him up.

"You and Beca can have such a nice life together now with that money," Jessica said excitedly and Jesse felt his stomach drop and Bumper groaned.

"That's right," Beca said smugly as she flipped him off with her wedding ring finger. "What's mine is yours, _baby_. We're married now."

"Fuck dude," Bumper groaned. "She's right."

"This annulment definitely just got a lot more interesting."


	5. Chapter Four

**Quick update, hope you all enjoy :)**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

* * *

"What the hell did you get yourself into Beca," Stacie said as she walked to the courthouse with Beca.

"I got married, I told you. You're my lawyer, you know everything," Beca rolled her eyes. "I was drunk. Don't you do stupid things when you're drunk?"

"Yeah, but they usually consist of a threesome, or an orgy, or that one time when I needed remember the safety word. That's really hard to remember when you're drunk," Stacie said, but stopped when she saw the look of disgust and amazement on Beca's face. "I don't get married though. That's insane."

"Thanks, Stace," she said as they walked into the courtroom and sat down at the table.

"His lawyer is trying to claim he entered the marriage unknowingly so he could keep the whole amount of winnings."

"And what are we claiming?"

"That you both knew what was going on and since you were legally married at the time he won, the money is marital property."

"Sounds smart," Beca nodded. "Just get me the fuck out of this marriage."

"I'll try my best."

"Your Honor, my client only knew Ms. Mitchell for a short amount of time. While in Vegas, they spent most of their time completely inebriated. Leading them to drunkenly get married, unaware of what they were doing," Bumper said to the judge, Judge Finch.

"Is there any evidence that this wedding was entered into knowingly?"

"We have a wedding picture," Stacie said, showing the judge a blown up picture of Beca and Jesse kissing before getting married. "There's also a video."

"Isn't that great," Judge Finch said as he watched the video of Beca and Jesse drunkenly confess their love for each other.

"This is so embarrassing," Beca mumbled from her seat.

"Well, it looks like you got a nice ring out of it, Mrs. Swanson," Judge Finch said.

"Yeah, the ring he meant to give to his ex-girlfriend. Just what every girl wants," she rolled her eyes.

"You should be happy he didn't take it away and give you a ring from a gumball machine, you ungrateful bitch," Bumper said.

"Do not call my client an ungrateful bitch, you troll," Stacie said.

"Why does everyone keep calling me a troll?"

"I think you're more gnome like," Beca said with a shrug.

"Enough!" Judge Finch said, slamming the gavel to make everyone quiet. "I don't like you, I don't like any of you. Your generation, with your Vegas and your Internet, and your 'I want it right now'. You know, gay people aren't destroying the sanctity of marriage, you people are. Marriage is about love and commitment. Listen, I've been married for twenty-five years to the same wonderful, infuriating woman. And granted there are days I want to light her on fire but I don't, because I love her, and that would be illegal. And you know something, I might be old fashioned, but when I said those vows, I meant them. Before, or should I say if, I ever allow either of you out of this marriage. I'm going to make sure you try everything, and I do mean everything, to make this work."

"Woah, wait a minute," Beca said, standing up from her seat. "You can't do that."

"Yeah, no," Jesse agreed.

"I will be freezing the $5 million dollars and sentencing you two to six months hard marriage, with weekly marriage counseling to keep an eye on you," Judge Finch said, ignoring their objections. "I assume both of you have an apartment," the judge said and they both nodded slowly. "What's the situation with that?"

"I, uh, I have a month left on my lease before I renew it," Beca sighed.

"I just bought a new place, so I have a full year lease."

"Looks like you'll be moving in with your husband, Mrs. Swanson. You can sublet your apartment to someone for that month. You will be moving in with Mr. Swanson immediately."

"Seriously?"

"Completely serious."

"Your Honor," Bumper tried, but sat down when Judge Finch glared at him. "Right, six months hard marriage. Got it."

"Good," Judge Finch said and slammed the gavel. "Next case."

"I seriously have to live with him for six months," Beca asked Stacie as they stood outside of the courthouse. "What the hell, dude!"

"Could be worse," Stacie shrugged. "At least he's hot. You have an in-house sex buddy for whenever you feel the need to scratch that itch for the next six months."

"Dude, no," Beca shook her head. "We are never having sex."

"Ever?"

"Ever," she said finally. "God, six months with him."

"I know, you're so excited over this," Jesse said as he walked over to her and Stacie with Bumper. "Six months we'll be roommates and at the end, we'll get the annulment and split the $5 million."

"Thrilled," she rolled her eyes. "Going to be the longest six months of my life."

* * *

"Beca, what the hell?" Chloe said as she helped her empty out her apartment. "I wanted you two to date, not get married right away."

"I was drunk, Chloe. Completely wasted. I don't remember a thing. You think I would willingly get married to him? You think I would willing get married at all?"

"Might not be so bad. Jesse's a really good guy. Maybe six months together would lead to a lovely new relationship."

"Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath on that one," she said as she walked downstairs and put the last box of stuff on the moving truck. "I might kill him before the end of the six months."

"Don't do that, he has to make it to my wedding."

"Oh damn it, I forgot about that."

"At least you get to go to the Applebaum wedding as a guest this time. The food is awesome at this place."

"Yeah, great," she rolled her eyes.

"Hello wifey," Jesse said brightly when he opened the door for Beca. "Welcome home."

"Don't even," she said pushing past him. "Where's my room?"

"I cleared out the guest room," he said pointing down the hallway. "Hey Chloe."

"Hey Jesse," she said, passing one of Beca's boxes to him. "She, uh, she'll come around eventually."

"For $2.5 million I'm sure she will."

"She's really guarded."

"Really, I haven't noticed," he said as he walked downstairs with Chloe to help. "I'm scared she's going to strangle me in my sleep."

"You might want to sleep with one eye open for the first week or two," Chloe said and Jesse looked over to see if she was joking, but her face was dead serious.

"That's comforting."

"She's a good person, deep down inside."

"Deep, deep down inside," Jesse said as he passed Beca and she didn't even give him a second glance.

"Let's just make this clear, Swanson," Beca said as she dropped the last of her stuff in the spare bedroom he had that was now hers. Chloe had left an hour ago, leaving them completely alone. "I'm not fond of you."

"Okay," he nodded.

"We'll deal with each other for six months, say we actually gave this a go, split the money in half, and part ways."

"Okay."

"Just wanted to make that clear, now get out of my room."

"Beca," he said, stopping the door she was about to slam in his face. "We actually have to try to make this marriage work."

"No, we don't."

"Judge Finch is going to know if we're not. The therapist is going to know if we're not."

"Not if we lie. You're not very bright, are you?"

"Fine, if we get away with bullshitting the therapist tomorrow, we can continue to do that, not even acknowledge each other, and wait out the six months. If I'm right, and she sees right through us, we'll actually make an attempt."

"Why do you even want to try? I'm just in it for the money.

"Because I don't want the judge to give us any reason that he can't give us the money," Jesse said.

"Fine. Now can you get out of my room?"

"Fine," he said, moving his hand away from the door and letting it close. This really was going to be the longest six months of his life.

* * *

"Are you ready to pretend like we're happily in love and can make this marriage work?" Beca said as they stood in front of the therapist's office.

"Ready if you are," he said, opening the door for her, and knowing that this plan was never going to work out.

"I'm Dr. Cynthia Rose, I'll be your court-appointed marriage counselor," Dr. Rose said as Jesse and Beca sat down. "I'll be here to help you through this, make sure you're actually making this work."

"We're definitely going try to make this work," Beca said, taking Jesse's hand in hers.

"Yeah," Jesse said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "Might not be the most ideal situation, but we're going to try."

"Why don't we start discussing how you two first met? We'll go from there."

"My friend thought we would be perfect for each other," Beca said, forcing a smile on her face.

"We met at their engagement party and really hit it off."

"He started telling me about his strange movie obsession and kept rattling off useless facts the whole time."

"She really knows how to make a guy feel special," Jesse said, hearing the sarcasm in Beca's voice. "I love it when she calls me a dork, or a weirdo, or nerd. My favorite from her lately is asshole."

"The amount of juice he has stocked in the fridge is great," Beca said, gripping his hand tightly. "It's like living with a man-child. I love it."

"Her candles smell awesome," Jesse said, pulling his hand from her death grip.

"Alright, here's how this is going to go down," Dr. Rose said after a few moments of silence. "I have a ton of degrees, which help me figure out when people are lying or not. You're actually going to have to try to make this work if you want Judge Finch to grant you this annulment. It's not going to be easy, especially since you two clearly do not want to be married to each other, but marriage is never easy. Start making the attempt, or you can kiss that $5 million and the annulment goodbye."

Beca awkwardly cleared her throat and Jesse scratched the back of his neck as they moved away from each other to opposite ends of the couch, not knowing what to do now.

* * *

**I'm really glad everyone really seems to like this story. It means a lot since it's really different from my last one. Leave a review and let me know any thoughts you had while reading it :)**


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

* * *

"Chloe, I can't do this," Beca said as she sat at her desk. "I'm going to kill him. Seriously."

"What's so bad? You're living in an awesome apartment with a really hot guy. Sounds like the good life to me."

"He won't leave me alone!"

"Beca," Stacie said, since she stopped by to see how the "newlyweds" were doing. "You can't kill him. You won't get the money."

"Screw the money, I want out of this arrangement. I want my own bathroom, my own kitchen, I want to be alone."

"Oh stop being so dramatic, it can't be that bad."

"Oh, but it is," Beca said quietly. "It's torturous."

* * *

"I can't do this anymore, man," Jesse said, frustration evident in his voice as he ran his hands over his face. "I'm scared for my life. In my own apartment."

"Beca's not that bad," Tom tried, but knew from the look Jesse was giving him, it wasn't working. "What has she done?"

"She threatens me every morning. Tells me she's going to kill me. I'm scared she's really going to do it. I haven't slept properly in days. Look!" Jesse said, pointing to the bags under his eyes.

"She's not going to kill you. Stop being dramatic, you sound like a girl."

"You ever live with her?"

"She's stayed with us a little bit when she first got to New York. She seemed," he paused, trying to find the right word. "Agreeable."

"Agreeable? She's fucking homicidal! I'm scared to go home."

"You're ridiculous."

"If I don't come in tomorrow, call the police and tell them Beca did it."

"Yeah, like Chloe would let me," Tom laughed.

Jesse arrived home to what seemed like an empty apartment. He called out her name and got no response, so he figured he was safe. He dropped his stuff on the floor, leaving a bit of a trail from the doorway to his bedroom. It was his apartment, he could do what he wanted. Beca would just have to deal with it.

He was in his room when he heard the door opened, followed by a loud thump and a couple of curses. Jesse ran out of his room and found Beca face down on the floor, since she tripped over his shoes and dress shirt.

"Are you fucking kidding me with this, Swanson?" she said angrily from the floor. Jesse didn't say anything or make any moves, scared of what she might do. "You want to help me up?"

"Uh, I don't know," he said. "Are you going to hurt me?"

"I'm going to hurt you even more if you don't help me the fuck up."

"Okay, okay," he said, going over to help her up. "I, uh, I was going to pick that up."

"I'm sure you were," she rolled her eyes, rubbing the elbow she fell on. "Why can't you get undressed in your bedroom like a normal human being?"

"Because I'm lazy."

"You're not the only one living here anymore, dipshit. Be considerate."

"Considerate? You wanna talk about being considerate? You take so long in the bathroom in the mornings, you wouldn't even let me pee yesterday!"

"I was getting ready for work," she shrugged. "Besides, you peed in the sink!"

"I had to go!"

"That's disgusting. There were dishes in there."

"Which I see you haven't touched."

"Why am I going to touch urine covered dishes?"

"Because it's your turn to do the dishes!"

"Not those dishes, buddy."

"You don't do _anything_ around here!" he yelled. "You just go in your room, put those giant fucking headphones on and don't do shit!"

"What am I going to do?"

"You could help around here a little bit. Maybe fucking clean, cook every once in a while?"

"You really want me to cook for you?" she said quietly and had a deadly look in her eye.

"Not if you plan on poisoning me," he backtracked. "Like you said, you're not the only one living here. Be considerate."

"Don't use my own words against me, Swanson. I am fucking considerate."

"Oh really? Please, enlighten me on how you are considerate."

"When you came home piss drunk the other night and threw up all over the bathroom," she said and he blushed bright red because he had no idea she knew about that. "I dragged you out of the bathroom and threw you in bed. Then I cleaned up the puke that was on the floor when you missed the toilet. I hate puke, it makes me throw up, but I'm so fucking _considerate_, that I did that."

"You did that?" He was wondering how he ended up in bed that night. He thought for once he actually made it into bed and not with his head in the toilet.

"Yes, did you not just hear me?"

"Uh," Jesse said stupidly, losing all the fire he had in him to keep arguing.

No one has been that nice to him when he was that drunk, not any of his friends from college, and certainly not Marissa. She would leave him on the floor in the bathroom and lecture him the next day about how it's not okay for a 27 year old man to still get that drunk when he goes out.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say to me?"

"Um, thanks?"

"You're welcome," she said nastily as she turned on her heel and walked away. "Next time, I'll let you drown in your own vomit."

"No you won't," he said quietly to himself as he picked up his stuff. Maybe Beca wasn't as bad as he thought she was.

The next morning, Beca woke up late since it was her day off. She knew Jesse came home early on Thursdays, so she got out of bed quickly so maybe she could leave before he got home. She took a shower and got dressed, planning on going to the coffee shop a few blocks away to maybe get some mixes done, and then hit the bar so she could write some wedding articles. Just as she was about to leave, she heard the door open.

"Shit," she cursed as she shoved her laptop into its carrying case. "So much for an easy escape."

"Beca, are you home?" Jesse called out as he put his stuff down.

"Just leaving," she said as she walked out of her room, but stopped when she saw the bouquet of flowers in his hand. "Who gave you flowers?"

"They're for you," he said, handing them to her. "I, uh, I wanted to apologize for being a dick."

"You better come up with a cheaper way to apologize for that then, because you're always a dick," she said as she looked at the flowers, which were absolutely beautiful.

"Yeah, well," he shrugged. "I was out of line yesterday, saying you don't do anything around here. And the fact you cleaned up my vomit really moved you up in my book."

"Stacie and Chloe were lightweights back in college. Years of experience," she said as she began to look for a vase. She couldn't find one, so she settled on a bowl.

"No one's ever been that nice to me, especially when I was that drunk. I usually just get left in the bathroom for the night."

"Which is exactly what I'm going to do next time that happens. Or you can learn how to drunkenly clean up after yourself. Like I do."

"I guess you're going to have to teach me," he smirked. She began to feel a bit uncomfortable by the normal banter they were having, since it was such a departure from the constant arguments. "Listen, I know we're not the best of friends."

"We're not even friends," she cut him off.

"Regardless," he rolled his eyes. "We have to live with each other for more than five more months. This fighting is just going to wear us down after a while."

"I know," she nodded, fidgeting with her sleeve. "I mean, I love arguing with people, but I might kill you after a while."

"And I don't sleep at night because I think you're going to murder me in my sleep."

"So, are we calling a truce? We'll learn to be civil with each other, since we obviously have a lot more time left together."

"Truce," he said, sticking his hand out of her to shake. She took it this time and shook it. Maybe the next five months and two weeks would be better than the past two weeks. It had to be better than the past two weeks for their sake.

* * *

**So, I actually have this story finished, which is so weird for me because I'm usually scrambling for chapters lol. There are 15 chapters in this story, 17 including the prologue and an epilogue. Which sounds short, but this is the normal story length for me, so it's nice to be back to normal because my other story was just a complete shock to me lol.**

**As usual, I love hearing what you thought, so leave a review :)**


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

* * *

"Beca, hurry up, I have to be there earlier," Jesse said, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for her to leave her room. "Come _on_."

"Relax, nerd," she said, walking out in a navy blue strapless dress and nude heels, holding a notebook and her bag. "I'm ready."

"Why do you have a notebook?"

"Uh, work stuff."

"You're honestly going to work at a wedding?"

"I kind of have to," she said hostilely. "You want to keep giving me the third degree, or do you want to leave so you can be on time for this fucking wedding?"

"Oh my God," he said, finally piecing it together. "You're the wedding columnist. You're Allie Hamilton."

"Shut up."

"There's no way," he said in disbelief. "You write the most beautiful things. So, do you secretly believe in love and marriage and just pretend to be a cynic, or are you actually a cynic who knows how to spin romantic crap?"

"The second one," she said dryly.

"How the hell do _you_ write such amazing articles on weddings?"

"I'm drunk half the time I write them," she said. "It's the biggest amount of bullshit I've ever written in my life. I should get a prize for being able to pull this out of my ass."

"I'm in shock," he said.

"You tell anyone and I'll kick your ass," she said, walking out of his apartment and toward his car. "Let's go. Before you whine and complain anymore about being late."

"So you would have been at this wedding anyway," he said as they began to drive to the Church.

"The Church part, yeah. The reception, no. That's just an added perk of being married to you for six months," she grumbled. "Free booze."

"This wedding is going to be a bit awkward."

"Why's that?"

"I used to date Jessica. We went to college together."

"Jesse and Jessica? Seriously," Beca laughed. "That's weird."

"Yeah, well. We broke up a long time ago, but I thought I loved her," he shrugged.

"I'm assuming you know the family then."

"Yeah, I do. We were close," he nodded.

"Isn't that awkward that Benji is marrying your ex-girlfriend?"

"Eh," he shrugged. It was awkward for him at first, but he eventually got over it when he saw how happy they were together. "Everyone's going to be asking for Marissa."

"Good, I'm the awkward stand-in for the most recent ex-girlfriend."

"Could be worse," Jesse shrugged.

* * *

"What's your favorite part of a wedding?" Jesse asked as the ceremony dragged on.

"I hate everything about them," she muttered as she wrote down a couple notes. "Sh, I'm working."

"Come on, you have to like _something_ about them."

"Aren't you supposed to be standing up there? Not next to me annoying the shit out of me?"

"No, they didn't want the bridal party up there, I don't know," he shrugged. "Tell me."

"God, you're persistent," she huffed. "Okay, so you know how everyone looks at the bride when she first walks out?"

"Yeah," he nodded.

"I look at the groom. The sad sap whose getting married and forcing himself into a lifetime of misery."

"Why do you look at him?"

"He just looks so happy. It's like I'm watching the last time a man will ever be that happy again," she said.

"That's ... nice," Jesse said, trying to find the right word. "A bit sick and twisted, but nice."

"Well, I guess you could say it's romantic and blah blah blah, but I won't be saying that," she said.

"I can't believe I didn't figure out you were Allie Hamilton, that she wasn't a real person," he said, shaking his head. "That's the character from The Notebook."

"You're smart," Beca rolled her eyes.

"I thought you hated movies."

"Google works wonders, my friend," she said. "Are you done questioning me now? Can I get back to work?"

"Like you're not just going to get drunk off your ass and bullshit the whole wedding," he scoffed.

"I need some facts to make it look like I actually paid attention."

"Fine, fine," he sighed, resting his arm on the back of Beca's chair. "Go back to work, Miss Hamilton."

"I hate you," she mumbled.

"Nothing you haven't told me before."

* * *

"You looked beautiful, Jess," Jesse said as he kissed Jessica hello.

"Thanks," she smiled. "You guys make such a cute couple. I'm so happy for you."

"Uh, thanks," Beca said awkwardly.

"Do you know if Allie Hamilton is still around? I wanted to thank her for coming."

"She, uh, she left," Beca said, smacking Jesse in the chest when he started laughing. "She said the wedding was beautiful though."

"I can't believe our wedding is going to be in the New York Times," Jessica said, grabbing Benji's arm and squealing in excitement.

"I know, it's amazing. When you see her at work, can you tell her we said thank you?"

"Yeah, sure," Beca said, pulling Jesse away before he passed out from holding in his laughter. "Dude, stop."

"It's just so funny that you're a wedding columnist."

"Well, I had to make money somehow. Let's just eat."

"I have to go say hello to Jessica and Benji's parents," he said, tugging Beca in the opposite way of their table.

"And you're bringing me why?"

"They might have told them I got married in Vegas, and they'll be asking where my wife is, and I don't know how good it looks if I say over at the table and they look over and find you drinking straight from the wine bottle, because I know you're eyeing that."

"God, this sucks. I hate being married to you," she groaned.

"Five more months to go, Beca."

"Can't wait."

* * *

"Best part about weddings is the open bar," Beca said as she stumbled into the kitchen and grabbed a beer for herself. "You want?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, plopping down on the couch and loosening his tie.

She threw a bottle at him and sat down on the other end of the couch. Since the first meeting with Dr. Rose, they've actually been making attempts to be more civil toward each other. The first two weeks were rough, they were constantly fighting and on the verge of killing each other. It wasn't until last week that they decided the next five months would be complete hell if they kept at it.

"That wedding was long, and got awkward when you had to give a speech," Beca said.

"Yeah, well. They're my friends. Can't erase the history I had with her, you just have to live with it."

"I don't get it. Didn't you say you loved her?" Beca asked, taking a sip of her beer. "Why'd you give up so easily?"

"I said I thought I loved her," he shrugged. "I guess I really didn't. Besides, Benji is my best friend and they're really good together. I was with Jessica for most of college, and then I moved out here and met Marissa."

"You fall really hard, don't you?"

"You could say that."

"That's pathetic," she snorted.

"At least I put myself out there."

"For what? Just to get hurt over and over again?"

"Because it's so much better how you're doing it, right? Not letting a single person in. You have these giant walls built that no one would be able to get through."

"That's the point," she nodded. "Why let people in? They just constantly disappoint you. Love is stupid."

"Says the wedding columnist," Jesse said and gave her a look.

"Not by choice. I don't want to do this; it was the only position open. Hell, I don't even want to write. Trust me, working at the Times is not my dream job."

"So what is your dream job then?" He vaguely remembered her mentioning something about producing music when they were in Vegas, but he barely remembers that whole night.

"I want to go back to LA and start making music again. I was a producer at a small record company in LA for a few years until they fired me after I got into an argument over a track with my boss and I was out of a job," she said, not really fond of this story. "It was either come here and continue to making a living or join the homeless on the streets of LA."

"I'm sorry," he said genuinely. "That sucks."

"Yeah, well, not your fault," she said uncomfortably. "Wasn't able to get a job because no one was looking to fill entry-level positions."

"But you had experience?"

"That's the best part," she laughed humorlessly. "I was never on the books as a producer. I was down just as an employee there – nonspecific. Meaning I could have been a fucking janitor for all they know. My bosses royally screwed me over and I can't do a thing about it. So I'm stuck working under Aubrey's iron fist until I can find another label to work for."

"Are you any good?"

"I'm the best there is," she said confidently, more confidently Jesse has ever heard her say anything.

"Can you read music?" he asked and she gave him a look. "Well, I don't know if this is out of line or anything, but I've been composing a piece for a movie. I could really use a second opinion on it from a fresh set of eyes."

"I'll give you my honest opinion of it before I do anything else," she said and he nodded. "Just a warning though, my honest opinion isn't like everyone else's honest opinion. My honest opinion is what got me fired."

"I'd rather hear an honest opinion like that than the honest opinion that someone thinks I want to hear," he said as he got up to get the sheet music. "Here you go."

Beca started reading it, knowing how the notes would sound, but knew she actually had to hear it. She got up quietly and walked over to the piano in the back of the living room and sat down at it to play.

Jesse had no idea she could play the piano, and she was actually pretty good. Not as good as him, of course, but close to it. He began to listen to the piece he's been spending weeks on, noticing a few subtle changes she made herself. She paused sometimes, lightly writing in some potential changes so she would remember, before finishing it. He walked over and sat down next to her.

"It's good," she said, pointing out a few of the spots she changed. "It's a beautiful piece. You're really talented."

"Thank you," he said, looking over the sheet and realizing she fixed the exact spots he was unsure about. "You play the piano really nicely."

"Thanks. My, uh, my dad taught me," she said. She felt uncomfortable at the somewhat nice moment they were just having, and then mentioning her dad pushed her over the edge. She felt herself begin to close up and pull away. "Well, congrats to us for making a month. Five more months to go."

"It's not so bad, is it?"

"I'm not someone you want to be married to, Jesse," she said as she stood up. She walked into the kitchen to wash out the beer bottle before putting it into recycling.

Jesse sighed as he watched Beca walk down the hallway and shut the door to her bedroom. He felt they made some progress tonight, but knew they weren't going to get anywhere. They made it a month without killing each other – that had to mean something.

* * *

**Hope you all enjoyed the chapter :) Let me know what you thought. **

**I'm trying to come up with another story idea, but coming up a little flat lol. It's tough because all my stories would literally be just like how Beca and Jesse are, so I don't really want to rewrite the movie lol. We'll see how it all works out I guess.**


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

* * *

"Beca, I meant to tell you. Your piece on the Applebaum wedding was really good, everyone loves it," Aubrey said as she passed by Beca's cubicle.

"Was that just a compliment I heard from Aubrey to me?" Beca asked Chloe, who looked equally as shocked.

"I think so. Maybe she took her happy pills today."

"Maybe she got laid," Fat Amy said. "Or ate a really awesome slice of pizza. Because sometimes that's better than sex."

"Speaking of sex," Chloe said, looking over at Beca. "How's Jesse?"

"Dude, how did you just go from sex to him?"

"Well, you are married and living together."

"Not by choice! That's so not happening, ever. I've made that perfectly clear."

"He's so hot though," Chloe said. "And those abs he has. Ugh, tell me you've seen them."

"No, we tend to walk around the apartment in clothes."

"You have to see them."

"Rather not, thanks though," she said, grabbing her stuff. "I'm going to work from home."

"You want to go see him shirtless now, don't you?"

"Not really. I just want to get away from you since you insist on talking about it."

"Liar!" Chloe yelled jokingly as Beca walked away from her.

Beca walked into their apartment and dropped her stuff on the kitchen table. She looked at her notes and sighed, deciding she was going to procrastinate a bit by taking a shower. She could use one after Amy spilled lo mein down her shirt earlier today. Beca got undressed in her bedroom and walked toward the bathroom in only her bra and underwear. She grabbed a towel from the linen closet and turned, bumping into something solid. Or rather, some_one_.

"What the fuck?" she said, looking up and seeing Jesse, shirtless, standing only in his boxers. "Dude! Why are you here! Why are you half-naked?"

"I took a shower," he said, taking a step back and finally realizing Beca was standing in only a black lace bra and matching boyshorts. "What are you doing? Why are you wearing that!"

"I was going to take a shower. I didn't know you were home," she said, crossing her arms over the chest in an attempt to cover herself up. She was trying to look everywhere but at Jesse's nicely formed abs and the perfect 'V' he had that led to his parts that Beca did not want to think about. At all. "God, you can't just sneak up on a person!"

"I was home in the shower when no one was home," he said defensively. He could feel his eyes trailing down to look at her chest, which looked fantastic in that bra. He didn't want to look at how flat her stomach was, or how nicely her hips were shaped. "You were at work. Stop trying to make me into a bad guy for taking a shower in my own apartment, shit."

"Just move so I can take a shower," she said, pushing past him and going into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Jesse shook his head as he walked into his bedroom to get dressed, trying to get the mental image of Beca out of his head, but failing miserably. They've been living together for two months already, and he doesn't know about her, but he knows he's been feeling some tension and frustration. He grabbed his work stuff and brought it to the dining room table, noticing Beca's stuff in the seat across from his.

A few minutes later, Beca walked out from the bathroom with her hair up in a messy bun, leggings, and an old college sweatshirt. Jesse couldn't help but think he hasn't seen her look more attractive.

"You're staring," she said, shaking him out of his thoughts. "It's creepy."

"Just trying to figure out if there's anything living in that rat's nest on your head," he said quickly. Beca just flipped him off. "Nice."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm working from home."

"Go work somewhere else, I was here first."

"No," he said stubbornly.

She just huffed and tried to read through her notes to start an article. Beca couldn't shake the image of Jesse shirtless from her head, and she blamed Chloe for all this, since she was the one who mentioned Jesse's abs this morning.

"So, uh," Jesse said awkwardly. "You looked fantastic before."

"Don't even," Beca said through gritted teeth, knowing exactly what he was going to eventually get at. "It's not happening."

"What's not happening? All I did was give you a compliment."

"We're not having sex. Ever," she said, giving him a pointed look.

"Who said I was going to ask."

"You're an idiot," she rolled her eyes before looking back down at her notebook.

"But, since you brought it up, why not? I mean, we are married."

"Not by choice."

"We slept together in Vegas."

"Drunken mistake, just like this marriage."

"I can't be the only one frustrated."

"Go jerk off a couple times, it'll help that frustration."

"I know you're attracted to me," he said smugly.

"Drop it," she said, grabbing her stuff. "I'm not having this conversation with you."

"You don't want to have any conversation with me. Whenever we actually get somewhere, you shut down," he said.

"Can't imagine why," she said, getting up to go in her room.

"You're right, I can't imagine why. I have no idea because _you_ won't tell me."

"Fuck off, Swanson," she said, finally leaving the table and going into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

"Good job, Jesse. Way to fucking go," he muttered to himself.

* * *

"So, how is everything going at home?" Dr. Rose said.

"Fine," Beca said shortly. "Just peachy."

"She doesn't want to talk about anything," Jesse said after a few moments of silence and a look from Dr. Rose. "Any time I try to get her to talk about something, she shuts down and closes me off."

"Maybe I just don't want to talk to you, Jesse," Beca snapped. "Married couples don't have to talk about everything, you know."

"You don't talk about anything."

"It could be good for you if you talk about what's bothering you, Beca," Dr. Rose said. "You can talk about it in here."

"I'd rather not."

"You see what I mean?" Jesse said. "It gets frustrating."

"Don't know why you care so much. We have four more months together before this is over."

"Because I'd like to come out of this marriage saying we're at least friends," he said.

"I don't need friends."

"Everybody needs friends," Jesse said, looking at Dr. Rose for help, but she just smiled and nodded for him to continue. "Why are you so insistent on being alone."

"It's easier that way. You don't get hurt when you're alone."

"Where did you get that idea?"

"My mom cheated on my dad when I was twelve, and my dad left. I begged for him to stay, but he left and remarried a bitch. She said she felt so alone in her marriage since my dad was working a lot. Then she turned into a whore, and would remind me everyday that feelings were a sign of weakness."

"Her loneliness caused her to cheat, so how do you think being alone is best?"

"Because I won't hurt anyone other than myself, and I just don't feel anything. I'm like a sociopath," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and looking out the window for a moment before realizing what she just said in front of the court appointed therapist. "I'm really not a sociopath."

"I know," Dr. Rose smirked. "So you've seen the bad turn a marriage can take when there's no communication, no one really making an effort. So why not try in this marriage and not make the same mistakes."

"I never wanted to get married at all. So much easier."

"So you'd just have random one-night stands?" Dr. Rose said and Beca became visibly uncomfortable. "Beca?"

"I, I don't do that."

"You're 27 years old, I have to say I'm rather surprised to hear that."

"Well, when you find out that someone cheated on their girlfriend with you, repeatedly, you kind of swear off anything and everything related to relationships – including sex," she said casually.

"When did this happen?"

"Sophomore year of college," she said and shifted positions on the couch. "Are we done psychoanalyzing me? I'm fucked in the head, I know I am. I'm not someone to be married to. Not all of us are dying to be in a relationship at all times like fucking Swanson over here, which _by the way_, I don't find that entirely heathy and normal either. Learn to be on your own for a while, you'll find yourself and realize your better off alone," she ranted and finished with a huff. "Are we finished?"

"You can go, Mrs. Swanson," Dr. Rose said politely. "I just want to speak to your husband for a moment."

"Please, don't call him that," she said as she grabbed her bag and walked out into the waiting room.

"Well, now I feel like a dick," Jesse said, running his hands over his face. "I brought up sex today, I had no idea."

"I would just take it day by day with her. Show her you'll be there for her when she's ready to talk. I think she needs a friend more than anything."

"Okay," Jesse nodded, getting up from the couch. "Thank you."

The car ride home was silent, along with dinner. Jesse tried to get Beca to watch a movie with him, but she ignored him and went into her room. When the movie was done, Jesse got up to go to bed. He stopped at Beca's bedroom and knocked on the door, but she didn't answer. He turned the doorknob and found it was unlocked so he let himself in.

"Beca, you okay?" he asked, looking at the lump of sheets and blankets on the bed.

"Go away," she said, her voice breaking a little like she was crying.

"I'm sorry about today, I didn't know," he said, ignoring her request and sitting on the bed next to her. "If you ever want to talk."

"Go away."

"No," he sighed, moving the comforter and pushing her over in bed so he could climb in next to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, feeling her body shake from sobs. "I don't like seeing you like this. "

"Then go in your room. Leave."

"Not until I know you're okay," he said, turning her around so she was facing him. He wiped the tears away from her face and kissed her forehead. "I don't like seeing my friends upset."

"We're not friends," she mumbled pathetically.

"That's right, we're _best_ friends. We spend all day together and we curse each other out and insult each other. That's what best friends do," he smirked.

"You're such a dork," she said, turning away from him. "You can leave now."

"No, I think I'm rather comfortable," he sighed, running his hand up and down her side. "Night, best friend."

"Night," she mumbled after a few minutes, so quietly he thought he missed it.

* * *

Jesse woke up the next morning to Beca sleeping, her head resting on his chest. He smiled as he kissed her forehead before quietly moving himself out from under her so he could start breakfast.

He had just finished setting the table when Beca walked out of her room, her hair in all different directions and her clothes all askew.

"Uh, thanks," she said awkwardly as she sat down in front of her plate. "And I don't mean for breakfast."

"No problem," he said.

"I'm kind of sorry for how I blew up yesterday too, about your need to be in a relationship," she mumbled as she ate her pancakes. "We both obviously have our own issues and views of being in a relationship."

"Don't worry about it," he said, shaking his head. "You're right. I jumped from one long term relationship to another, and now into a marriage."

"We're both on the shitty ends of the spectrum, aren't we?"

"You're a sociopath, and I'm a serial monogamist. We make quite the pair."

"We sound like future killers they analyze in Criminal Minds."

"Yeah," Jesse laughed. "Maybe we should tell too many people that."

"Yeah, we probably shouldn't tell anyone that," Beca said, smiling a little at him.

They ate in a comfortable silence after that, and Beca started to clean up when they were finished. There was a knock at the door, which Jesse answered.

"Uh, who are you?" he asked as he started at the tall, blonde man standing in his doorway.

"Is Beca here?"

"Who is it?" Beca asked, hearing her name. She smiled as she ran toward the guy to hug him. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Jesse asked, uncomfortable with watching Beca hug this guy and look extremely happy around him.

"I'm Luke."

* * *

**Any guesses on who Luke is to Beca? Whoever guesses correctly gets a preview of the next chapter & a mention. Can't wait to see the guesses lol. **

**By the way, thanks to ** ** for using "serial monogamist" to describe Jesse, because I wouldn't have thought of that ever and it provided me with the small part at the end and Beca pointing out Jesse's own relationship issues lol. So thanks :)**

**So, leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter :)**


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

* * *

"I'm Luke," he said, shaking Jesse's hand.

"He's my step-brother," Beca explained, and Jesse felt a whole lot of relief. Why he felt relieved though, he wasn't sure. "The step-monster had him from a previous marriage."

"They know, Beca," Luke said as he sat down on the couch. "Mom and Dave know."

"Know what?"

"That you're married."

"Fuck," Beca sighed, sitting on the other edge of the couch. "How?"

"Dave called Aubrey to see how you were doing, and she mentioned you got married."

"That bitch," Beca said.

"What do we do?" Jesse said to Beca. They wanted to keep the marriage from their families as long as possible, since it was a mistake.

"They want you to come home so they can meet Jesse."

"No," Beca said firmly.

"They'll come here. That'll be even worse because they'll see you're not the happily married couple you're trying to be," Luke said with a smirk.

"How do you know?" Jesse asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"Please, my sister would never get married willingly," Luke rolled his eyes. "Once I heard you got married, I knew something was up. Hence why I'm here."

"The judge wouldn't grant us the annulment and forced us to try out married life for six months," Jesse explained.

"What a douche," Luke said and Beca nodded in agreement. "How's it going?"

"We're best friends," Jesse said, just to get on Beca's nerves.

"We're roommates who dislike each other," Beca muttered.

"Can't wait for you two to come down to Atlanta then," Luke said. "Should be interesting."

"Why do we have to go there?"

"Dave's going to call you soon," Luke said and her cell phone started to ring. "How much you want to be that's your dad."

"Hate you," Beca mumbled as she answered her phone. "Hey Dad."

"_Why do I have to find out from a former student of mine, your boss, that you got married?_"

"We were, uh, keeping it a secret?"

"_That's stupid. Shelia and I would like to meet him. Why don't you two take next weekend off and come down and visit?_"

"I don't know, Dad. I've got a ton of weddings coming up and Jesse's been working on work stuff," she lied.

"_Please, Beca. It's been so long. We'd really like to see you. Luke misses you. He went on a roadtrip this week, but he should be back by next weekend_."

"Yeah, I wonder where he went," Beca said, narrowing her eyes at her step-brother. "There's no excuse I can give you that will get me out of this?"

"_Nope, sorry. You're stuck. I have to meet my little girl's husband,_"

"Don't call me that," she said and let out a sharp breath. "Fine. We'll be there next weekend. Bye."

Beca hung up and threw her phone back in her bag. She walked back over to the couch and sat down next to Jesse, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands.

"Better call into work and let them know you're taking off next weekend," Beca said to Jesse. "And you," she said, pointing at Luke. "What the hell did you tell them? They don't know you're here."

"I was going on a soul-searching road trip to find myself," he nodded as he stood up. "Now that I've found myself, I can go spend some time in some bars, maybe find myself with a couple girls, and return home a new man."

"You're disgusting," Beca rolled her eyes as she let him out. "See you next weekend."

"It's good to see you, Becs. Stop being a stranger. We may not be blood related, but you're still my little sister," he said, hugging her.

"Thanks Luke," she said.

* * *

"Why don't we drive down to Atlanta? See the scenery and shit," Jesse said as he loaded their luggage into the cab.

"Because it's a long drive and I might kill you being stuck in a small space like a car for such a long time," she said, passing him her bag. "Is that it?"

"Yup, we're all set," he said, opening the door to the cab for her. "Ladies first."

"Now you're a gentleman," she rolled her eyes as she slid into the cab. "Last time we were going somewhere, you didn't even get out of the car."

"Well, we're married now, darling. Things change."

"Isn't it usually the other way around?"

"Last time I'm nice to you," he sighed.

"Good," she smiled. "Do we, uh, have to inform your family on this marriage too?"

"No," Jesse shook his head. "I told them what happened."

"I'm sure they were proud of you for drunkenly marrying a stranger."

"My mom was upset, but I promised her the next time I get married, she'll be there."

"Let's hope you don't go to Vegas for your bachelor party."

"Someone should burn that place to the ground," he muttered.

* * *

"Shelia's really, really fake. Like she makes Barbie look real," Beca said as they walked up to the front door of her dad's house. "My dad is, I don't even know."

"It'll be fine, don't worry," he said, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly. "Ready?"

"No," she sighed as he pressed the doorbell. "But whatever."

"Beca! It's so good to see you," a blonde woman with a lot of makeup answered the door. "This must be your husband. I'm Shelia, welcome to the family."

"Thank you," Jesse said as they walked in. "I'm Jesse."

"We were so upset that Beca didn't invite us to the wedding," Shelia said as she led them into the dining room, where Dr. Mitchell and Luke were already sitting. "This is my husband, David, and my son from a previous marriage, Luke."

"Nice to meet you," Jesse said, shaking Dr. Mitchell and Luke's hands. "Thank you for letting us stay over."

"Nonsense, of course you two had to stay over," Shelia said as she sat down. "So, how was the wedding?"

"Don't really remember," Beca said as she grabbed the wine bottle and poured herself a full glass, knowing she'll need it to get through this.

"I'm sure that's the reason why," Luke said, smirking at Beca's full wine glass. "Has New York turned my sister into an alcoholic?"

"No, working for Aubrey as a fucking wedding columnist has."

"You should be grateful, Aubrey didn't have to give you that job," Dr. Mitchell said. "I always told you that you had great potential to be a journalist, I was right. You wasted so much time on that music thing."

"That music thing was my dream career."

"And look where that got you," Dr. Mitchell said. "So, Jesse, what do you do?"

"Uh, I work for a production company as a composer. I create scores for films. I haven't done anything major yet though, a lot of indie films that premiere at film festivals."

"Wow, that's amazing," Dr. Mitchell said and Jesse couldn't help but frown. He was okay with Jesse being a composer, but not with Beca being a producer. It didn't make sense.

"Yeah," Jesse nodded. "Beca helped me finish a piece I was working on last month. She's really talented."

"She is pretty good. I played a couple of her mixes on the radio, a lot of people liked them," Luke said.

"Well, DJing is not a profession, it's a hobby," Dr. Mitchell said. "Unless you're someone awesome."

"I don't want to DJ, Dad," Beca said angrily, sounding like she's had this conversation multiple times. "I want to make music, I want to produce music. I was doing that until my asshole boss couldn't realize I was right and he was wrong."

"I think she can get back into the music business, she's really talented. Any record company would be lucky to have her," Jesse said and that seemed to be the end of the conversation.

* * *

"Are we really going to awkwardly sleep on this bed together?" Jesse asked as they lay in bed in the guest room.

"Yup, good night," she said, rolling over so her back was facing him. He sighed as he stared up at the ceiling.

"It's not like we've never slept in a bed together."

"Once was because we were drunk, and the other time was because you wouldn't leave."

"You didn't seem to mind it."

"I have no control of my subconscious movements. Go the fuck to sleep, I'm exhausted."

"Your dad seems nice."

"God, you don't listen at all," she huffed. "He's not that bad."

"But you two don't seem close."

"That happens when you walk out on your family."

"What made you stay with your mom?"

"Why does everything turn into twenty questions with you?"

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I don't realize I do it."

"It's fine," she sighed after a few minutes. "I wanted to show my dad that I was better than him. That I wouldn't walk out on my mom too. Stupid choice that was."

"I think that's really brave, especially for a 12 year old," Jesse said, rolling over on his side so he could stare at her back.

"It didn't help me much. I just watched my mom self-destruct slowly. Our front door should have been replaced with a revolving door with the amount of guys going in and out," Beca said dryly. "It wasn't a fun time growing up."

"Doesn't sound like it."

He rolled over on his other side after a few minutes of silence, knowing Beca wasn't going to talk anymore and he didn't want to stare at her back the whole time.

"Jesse," she said quietly, rolling over and moving closer to him. "Thank you for tonight."

"For what?"

"Um, defending me to my dad. He's never really be onboard with me wanting to go into producing," she said, hoping he wouldn't turn around because it's a lot easier to talk to his back than his face. "He's never really understood, you know? He's just seen me spending all my time on my computer creating mixes, but he doesn't get it."

"I know," Jesse said, turning around. "I get it. You get this rush when you've created something completely different but it still works."

"Yeah," she nodded. "He just thinks I'm wasting my time."

"I don't think you are," Jesse said, reaching out to pull her into his side. "I think one day you're going to get the recognition you deserve, and everyone is going to want to work with you."

"Maybe," she shrugged. "For now I'm just a wedding columnist."

"You're a lot more than a wedding columnist, don't sell yourself short," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "Besides, Allie Hamilton is the wedding columnist, not Beca Mitchell."

"Beca Swanson," she corrected him, instantly regretting it once it came out of her mouth.

"Oh yeah, we're married," he said. "Beca Swanson has a nice ring to it."

"Don't get used to it. Four more months until I'm Mitchell again."

"And we'll both be rich."

"Four months can't come soon enough," she sighed. "I wish I could just tell them this marriage was a mistake, but they wouldn't understand."

"Why not?"

"My dad would go on about how I'm careless and I make stupid decisions, and how I should have listened to him more. Shelia would just find me trashier than she already thinks I am. She's one to talk," Beca scoffed. "I'm just a trashy disappointment of daughter."

"You're far from that, Beca," Jesse said, looking down at her as she rested her head on his chest. "You're an amazing person, and they'll realize it sooner or later."

"Thanks, nerd," she said softly. "I guess you're not too bad to be around."

* * *

**Good guesses, everyone. Luke is Beca's step-brother. I figured it was a good way to throw everyone off for a bit, but I didn't throw too many people off. **BittyAB18, atumblrturtle, aprilgarnett, abbieheppenstall, Amazingly-Scary-Ear-Spike, haileyp123, Hunger games fan1213, jellybean96, SmileyMiss, Eminem7856, syadzwana, ambeebambee333, Dancerchamp22 & jessicayip792 **all guessed brother, so clearly I wasn't as tricky as I thought I was lol. **

**Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you thought of it :)**


	10. Chapter Nine

**So sorry I didn't respond to any of your reviews for the last chapter. I read them all in my spare time, but I'm just so busy this week. I feel bad since I always answer everyones reviews, forgive me lol.**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

* * *

Beca was feeling uncomfortable. She's made it to the halfway mark for this marriage, and she's noticed how things have changed drastically. Like how she doesn't mind it when Jesse starts to ask her personal questions, and how she asks him some of her own. How marriage counseling is actually going pretty well and Dr. Rose seems to think they're beginning to act like a real married couple. Then there's the fact that she's okay with Jesse randomly coming into bed with her just to sleep, and how there's some nights when she feeling a bit on the vulnerable side (not that she'd ever admit that out loud) she'll crawl into Jesse's bed and feel a lot better once he wraps his arms around her. Beca doesn't like change. Especially change like this.

"How's everything going?" Stacie asked as Beca met with her and Chloe for lunch one Saturday. "You're halfway there. Can you smell that $2.5 million yet? Any idea what you're going to spend it on?"

"Uh, no," she shrugged as she looked over the menu. "Probably save it. Maybe buy my way into a record label."

"Or just buy the whole record label," Chloe suggested. "How's Jesse?"

"He was just by your place with Tom the other night, why do you ask me?"

"Just curious," she shrugged. "You still on that no sex rule?"

"You were serious about that?" Stacie said, dropping her fork on her plate in shock. "You've lived in an apartment with that hot piece of ass for three months and you haven't had sex?"

"Yeah, why is that so hard to believe?"

"Because, well, look at him!" Stacie sputtered.

"You're uncomfortable, aren't you?" Chloe said knowingly. "Jesse's not like that, you know."

"I know. He's actually a good guy," Beca said, staring down at her plate and shifting her food with her fork. "We're getting along a lot better now."

"That's good," Chloe said, clapping her hands together. "Oh, I knew you two would hit it off. Now you can stay married."

"Woah, that means I lose a case then," Stacie said.

"No one is staying married," Beca rolled her eyes. "Just because we're getting along now doesn't mean I want to be married to him."

"So you'll get the annulment, date for a while, and then properly get married," Chloe said.

"This is why I hate it when you bring him up. That's not happening, can we just drop the topic please."

"Okay," Chloe backed off. "Do you have anything this weekend?"

"Nope, no weddings finally. God, I hate them."

"Good, because we're going bridesmaid dress shopping and the two of you have to be there," Chloe said.

"You're going to pick out something flattering right? Maybe show off a little leg, a little cleavage," Stacie said.

"Just show up naked, that'll show it all off," Beca deadpanned. "I swear to God, Chloe, if you pick anything pink or light colored, I will hang you by the dress you pick."

"Why so violent toward the bride?"

"Best way to get my point across," she shrugged. "I'll wear my own dress if you do that though."

"Fine, fine," Chloe rolled her eyes. "It is _my_ wedding, you know. I have the final say in everything."

"Not when it comes to dress color. You wanted me in the bridal party as your maid of honor. You should have expected this," Beca said.

"Yeah, I guess," she sighed. "Good thing I hate pink."

* * *

"Beca, watch a movie with me," Jesse said when she came back from bridesmaid dress shopping.

"That's definitely not the first thing I want to hear after I just spent three hours in the bridal boutique trying on dresses," Beca groaned as she placed her stuff on the dining room chair. "I just want to sleep. It's been exhausting."

"How exhausting can trying on dresses really be?"

"You try squeezing into the really short, really tight dresses Stacie picks out because she thinks they're appropriate."

"How tight and how short are we talking here?"

"You're disgusting," she scoffed and he laughed.

"Come on, watch a movie with me," he tried again. "We've never watched a movie together."

"Can't imagine why. I hate movies."

"And I aim to change that. We're really quite behind on your movie-cation, anyway. I'm going to have to jump ahead to the life-changing stuff. Complete immersion into the movie world, no baby steps for you, Beca," he said, getting up and pulling her over to the couch.

"I'm just going to fall asleep, I really am exhausted," she said, grabbing the bowl of popcorn off the coffee table.

"Did you find a dress?"

"Yeah, it's actually not as bad as I expected," she said. "And it's not in a horrendous color. It's blue."

"Oh good, I was worried," he rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't want you to be seen in something that was purple, or even worse, _pink_."

"You're a dick."

"Thank you," he said, grabbing the remote off the table and the popcorn from her. "Learn to share."

"You're forcing me to watch this movie. Let me have the popcorn, nerd," she said, taking it back from him. "What boring movie are we watching anyway?"

"The _amazing_ movie we're watching is The Breakfast Club. Best scored movie, amazing ending, you'll love it."

"Doubtful," she yawned, getting comfortable on the other end of the couch.

"Would you like to move any further away?"

"Actually, I would, but there's no more couch left," she said. Jesse just rolled his eyes at her smartass remark before gently pulling her closer to him. "What are you doing?"

"You need to be closer so we can share popcorn."

"I don't share. I was absent that day."

"Well, now you're going to learn. Better late than never, now shut up," he said, pressing play and letting the movie begin.

Beca watched the first twenty minutes of the movie when she started to feel herself fall asleep. She pushed the popcorn bowl into Jesse's lap and discreetly rested her head on the back of the couch, hoping he wouldn't notice that she was planning to pass out.

Jesse looked over to say something to Beca when he noticed she was fast asleep. He rolled his eyes, not understanding how she could fall asleep but knowing better than to wake her up. He moved her so she was resting her head in his lap because she looked uncomfortable in the position she was in. He ran his fingers through her hair absentmindedly as he watched the movie.

Jesse couldn't help but think about how nice this was, how different it was from spending time with Marissa. She would talk through every movie, or end up on her phone talking to someone or playing some stupid game. He knew his movie obsession was out of hand at times, but he would have rather had her be honest like Beca and then fall asleep, rather than pretend to be interested and just ruin the movie for him. He could honestly say he wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life like this, which worried him a bit. Like Beca, he's also noticed the small changes between them and was unsure what to make of it.

"I swear to God, if you moved me to get a blow job, I will kill you," she muttered, sleep thick in her voice.

"You figured it out," he rolled his eyes. "You looked uncomfortable, that's all. You fell asleep during your movie-cation, I might have to start the whole thing over."

"Please don't," she groaned as she rolled over to look up at him. "I won't survive."

"At least stay awake for the greatest ending of all time," he said, turning her head so she faced the TV. "Then I can die a hero."

"Fine, fine," she sighed, watching as a homeless looking kid put an earring in his ear and walked across a field, thrusting his fist in the air. "That really was life-changing, nerd. I feel like a completely different person."

"You're such a smartass," he said, turning the movie off. "One day, Beca, you'll watch this whole movie and you'll realize how truly amazing it is. And then you can thank me for changing your life."

"I'm sure, Jesse, I'm sure," she said, standing up from the couch and stretching. "But right now, I'm going to bed."

"You want some company?"

"No thanks," she said, rolling her eyes. "I think your bed misses you."

"I think my bed misses you too," he said with a smirk.

"You're a pain. Good night, Jesse," she said before walking away.

* * *

**I also updated with a short chapter, which is like my second strike right now I feel like lol. I just remembered now, at 130 in the morning, that I hadn't updated in a few days and I figured I would before I went to sleep because I'm absolutely exhausted. This is a super busy week for me, so bear with me. I promise I will answer everyones reviews for this chapter and whatever questions and comments you had for the last. **

**Let me know your thoughts and remarks on this chapter. Thanks everyone :)**


	11. Chapter Ten

**Crazy week is over! Here's an update for you all :)**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

* * *

"Beca, can you come into my office, please?" Aubrey said over the phone. Beca sighed as she grabbed her stuff and headed to Aubrey's office, not sue why she wanted to see her.

"Have I done anything wrong?" Beca asked as she sat down.

"No, nothing lately. Just those earrings really need to come out," Aubrey said, giving her a stern look as Beca shook her head. "There's a wedding this weekend, and the couple wants you to cover the reception as well."

"I don't usually do that."

"I know, but they insisted. They've requested you bring a guest, so you can bring your husband."

"I have to bring a guest?"

"Yes, you do."

"Joyous," Beca mumbled. "Oh, thank you, by the way. For telling my dad I got married. That was a great visit."

"How was I supposed to know you didn't tell your parents? They're usually the first people you tell."

"Not this marriage," Beca said. "Anyway, it's this weekend?"

"Yes, George Pearson's daughter is getting married."

"Am I supposed to know who this is?"

"He's the head of a publishing company."

"Oh, okay," she said, standing up from her seat. "So, are we done?"

"Yes. You submitted all your stuff?"

"Emailed it to you an hour ago," Beca said.

"You may be a pain sometimes, but you are punctual," Aubrey said as she opened her email. "You can go home if you'd like."

"I would like that, Thanks," she said, leaving Aubrey's office.

"Flatbutt, I have to write a review on a Thai food place in the Meatpacking District, wanna come with?" Fat Amy said when she caught Beca by the elevators.

"Yeah sure, I'm starving."

"Awesome spare ribs, my god," Fat Amy practically moaned as she inhaled her food. Beca couldn't help but stare as she ate the rice she ordered. "So, how's married life treating you?"

"It's not married life. We're roommates, that's it."

"That ring is his ex-girlfriend's almost engagement ring, right?"

"Uh, yeah," Beca said, twirling the ring around her finger. "It's prettier than the ring from a Cracker Jack box that Bumper wanted Jesse to give me."

"Have you met said ex-girlfriend?"

"No," she shook her head. "He doesn't like to talk about her much. From what I got from Tom, she told Jesse she met someone else the night he was going to propose. Jesse was mortified since all their friends and family were there."

"Harsh," Amy said. "Why not ask him for all the gritty details?"

"Not my place. He doesn't push me for stuff, I don't push him. It's a mutual agreement we have."

"Weird, you guys are like respectful of each other," she said.

"Better than being at each other's throats," Beca shrugged. "I don't need to be arrested for murder."

"That would be bad. You wouldn't be able to eat any of these awesome spare ribs."

"I wasn't able to eat them anyway. You inhaled them all," Beca said.

"Oh right. Well, we'll order more of them and spring rolls. I could go for spring rolls. And maybe some pad thai."

"I'll stick with my rice," Beca said, scooping a spoonful in her mouth. "But order more spring rolls."

* * *

"Jesse, I have to ask you something," Beca said from the couch. Jesse looked up from the piano and nodded for her to continue. "I have a wedding this weekend for work, and Aubrey said they insist I bring a guest."

"That's weird."

"I know," she agreed. "But Aubrey's going to bitch if I don't bring one since they said I should and we always have to listen to the bride and groom's families, why I don't know, and then she's going to cause a scene over why I can't get my 'husband' to come with me."

"I'll go," he shrugged. "Free booze, right?"

"Good way to think about," she said, thinking that went easier than expected.

"Who's wedding is it? Anyone I would know?"

"Uh, Pearson, I think. Some big shot at a publishing company. His daughter is getting married."

"George Pearson?" Jesse said, sounding nervous suddenly.

"Yeah, why? You know who he is?"

"My, uh, ex worked for him. She now dates his son."

"Oh, awkward," Beca said. "You think she'll be there."

"Probably."

"Well, I guess I could tell Aubrey and see what she says. I wouldn't want to put you in a weird situation," Beca said.

"No, I wouldn't want you to have work problems because of me," he said, playing the piano again. "I'll come."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll just have to be extremely drunk to get through the night."

"Same here. Might be my best article yet," she smirked.

* * *

"This wedding is huge, holy shit," Beca said as she walked into the reception for the wedding. "This is insane."

"Only the best for George Pearson's little princess," Jesse muttered. "I'll be at the bar. You have to introduce yourself, right?"

"Don't want to come with?" she said with a smirk.

"I'll pass," he grumbled, leaving her on her own.

"Miss Hamilton, it's great to meet you," George Pearson said, shaking Beca's hand. "I'm so glad you came."

"Thank you for having me, Mr. Pearson. The wedding was beautiful," Beca said, mustering up all the fake sweetness she could. "Amanda looked amazing."

"Only the best for my little princess," he said, mimicking the words Jesse had said to her moments ago. "Enjoy yourself tonight. You worked during the ceremony, now it's time for some fun."

"Thank you," she said before walking away and finding Jesse at the bar, three empty shot glasses lined up in front of him. "Already? Last time we took shots, things didn't end so well."

"I'm good," he nodded, getting three shots for her. "Now you need to be good."

"Oh, I'm going to be great after this," she said with a smirk. "Have you seen her?"

"No, not looking either."

"I wanna meet her," Beca said, glancing around the room like she knew who she was looking for.

"No, no you don't."

"Why not?"

"Because then I have to talk to her. I haven't talk to her since she broke up with me for George Pearson Jr.," he said grumpily.

"You don't talk much about her."

"You don't talk much about anything."

"Okay," she said, ordering a drink for herself to bring back to the table. "Let's go sit down and not talk about this anymore because I don't need to fight with you right now."

"Fine," he said, taking her hand and leading her to table 18, the table they were being sat at. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked as they sat down.

"Just now. Just knowing she's in the same room puts me on edge."

"She really hurt you, didn't she?"

"I was with her for four years and she cheated on me. She was with him for six months, and I had no idea. I've never felt so stupid before."

"Really, you've never felt stupider?" Beca said, trying to lighten things up, but it didn't work. "Don't worry about it. It'll be fun. We'll have fun."

Jesse lasted almost the entire night avoiding Marissa. He noticed her across the room, laughing at something Mrs. Pearson said, or fixing Amanda's wedding dress. Beca noticed him staring at the tan brunette woman across the room, assuming that she was Marissa. She was pretty, Beca would give her that, but she looked like a fake bitch. A bigger bitch than Beca was, and that's saying something.

"Let's get more to drink," Beca said, pulling him out of his chair in hopes of distracting him from whatever thoughts were plaguing his mind.

"Yeah, okay," he nodded, following her over to the bar.

"So, I'm going to guess that's the ex," Beca said as she ordered two shots.

"Yup," Jesse said, downing one and asking for another. "That's Marissa."

"She's pretty," Beca said.

"She's a bitch. It ruins her looks."

"Then I must be hideous," Beca joked.

"No, you're not. You're beautiful, Beca," he said and Beca got a weird feeling in her stomach. "Oh, I love this song."

"It's a great song," Beca nodded, taking another shot and starting to feel the effects of the alcohol.

"Hey, kids shake it loose – a lemon. Gotta make a feather," Jesse began to sing.

"Those are not the words, nerd," Beca laughed

"Those are exactly the words," Jesse said seriously as Beca shook her head and laughed some more. "Sorry, lyric police. What are the words?"

"You're gonna hear a handsome music. So the walrus sounds."

"Walrus sounds? What?" Jesse laughed.

"Say, Penny's no longer in a cement jet. You're scaring me, oh, but you're so laced down."

"Buh, buh, buh, buh, Bennie and the Jets," the sang together, laughing through it.

"Oh, in the wind and the waterfall. Oh, baby, she's a revocaine," Jesse sang.

"She's got electric boobs."

"Boobs?"

"And mohair shoes."

"You know I read it in a magazine," they belted out and laughed when they saw the looks they were getting from the people around them. "Buh, buh, buh, buh, Bennie and the Jets."

"Let's dance," Jesse suddenly said, taking the last shot he had in front of them and pulling Beca toward the dance floor.

"I don't dance," she said stubbornly.

"Now you do," he said, pulling her out of the seat. "You have to dance at a wedding, it's a requirement."

"No it's not," she rolled her eyes as she followed him to the dance floor. "You're an idiot."

"Thank you," he said, placing his hand on the small of her back as they swayed to the music. "We didn't dance at our wedding."

"Can't imagine why. We're lucky we walked," she snorted.

"Jesse? Jesse, is that you?" a female voice said and Jesse's whole demeanor changed. "Oh my God, it is you!"

"Marissa," he said, turning to acknowledge her.

"It's been so long," she said, going to hug him but he stepped back. "How are you?"

"Fine."

"Who's your date?" she said, and Beca noticed the look in her eyes. The look that meant she was sizing Beca up and trying to figure out if Jesse moved up or down from her.

"A friend," Beca nodded.

"I didn't know you were invited to this wedding," Marissa said to Jesse.

"I was. I'm helping the wedding columnist for the Times," Beca said. "I'm Allie Hamilton's assistant."

"Jesse, I never knew you knew Allie Hamilton's assistant!" she said excitedly. Jesse wanted to throw up everything he just drank on her designer shoes that cost _him_ almost a month's paycheck for a birthday gift. "I read her stuff all the time."

"Yeah, Jesse and I are _best_ friends," Beca said, smiling at Jesse as she wrapped her arm around his and rested her cheek against his shoulder.

"Oh," Marissa said, not too sure what was going on.

"We're actually married," Jesse said suddenly. Beca didn't expect that.

"Oh," she repeated. "When did this happen?"

"Three months ago."

"Ah, so it's a recent relationship," Marissa nodded knowingly and Beca narrowed her eyes at the girl. She knew exactly what was going through Marissa's mind. Beca was the rebound girl. While that technically may be kind of, sort of true, Beca couldn't have her thinking that.

"We've known each other for a while, but you two were together when we met, even though our best friends _insisted_ we were perfect for each other. We met again when you broke up with him and it was like it was meant to be, so we figured why wait? It's too bad we weren't together longer, but Jesse's not that type of guy, you know?"

"What are you insinuating?" Marissa said, getting annoyed at Beca quickly.

"I'm not insinuating anything," Beca said and smiled at her. "Just saying Jesse's a great guy and any girl would be extremely lucky to have him. I'm just glad I'm that girl."

"Yeah, well, I had him," Marissa said defensively.

"Yes, the word being _had_. I _have_ him now because you're a cheating bitch who wouldn't know a good thing if it sat on your face."

"How dare you, you don't even know me."

"And I don't want to know you."

"You bitch," Marissa spat. "Looks like you clearly downgraded from me, Jesse."

"If you mean downgrade by he went from a gold-digging whore to a normal girl who actually cares about him, then yes, he did downgrade."

"Okay, I think we should go," Jesse said, wrapping his arm around Beca's waist and leading her away from Marissa when he saw Marissa was going to say something back at Beca.

"She's a piece of work," Beca muttered as they got their jackets from coat check and got ready to leave.

"Yeah," he said, giving the valet guy the ticket for his car. "Now I see that."

"Good," Beca nodded with a smirk. "And I got her ring."

"I should have gotten you a different ring."

"The plastic ring Bumper wanted you to give me?"

"No, like an actual ring," he said. "Not the ring I was going to give her."

"I would have been pissed. That's such a waste of money."

"Hey, Beca," he said, grabbing her arm so she was facing him.

He placed his hand on her cheek and leaned down to kiss her. Beca was so surprised she almost didn't respond at first. She placed her hands in his chest to steady herself. The valet cleared his throat, interrupting their moment to give Jesse his keys.

"Thanks, man," Jesse said, taking his keys and giving the guy a tip. He opened the passenger side door for Beca and then got into the driver's side, smiling since he was feeling a little bit better. Beca, on the other hand, was more confused than ever.

* * *

**And so we met Marissa in this chapter lol. Let me know your thoughts, feelings, anything you could possibly write about this chapter **:)


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Quick update to make up for the long wait :)**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

* * *

"He did _what_?" Chloe asked while she and Beca were in yoga together.

"He kissed me," Beca whispered since they were getting shushed by everyone in the class. "It was weird, Chloe."

"You guys haven't done anything at all since your wedding night?"

"Nothing. That's the first kiss we've had that I actually remember."

"Maybe he's starting to fall for you."

"Don't say that," Beca groaned, half because of what Chloe said, and half because of the pose the instructor wanted them to go into.

"Why? It won't be such a bad thing."

"I just want to be alone, Chloe."

"You can't go through life alone, Beca. If you're going to go through life with someone, you should go through it with Jesse."

"I know he's a great guy and everything, I just can't."

"You're impossible, Beca, you know that?" Chloe said, earning another shush. "How bad did you freak out when he kissed you?"

"Uh, not so bad."

"On Beca standards or normal people standards."

"Beca standards. I just didn't talk to him when we got home, and we kind of haven't had a real conversation since."

"Beca! That wedding was a week ago!" Another shush.

"I know," she said, looking away from Chloe as they did the downward-facing dog.

"Beca, you can't just ignore him for a week! He's probably freaking out."

"No, he's fine with it," Beca said as they moved into a standing forward bend.

"He's definitely not. I know Jesse. He might act all arrogant and like nothing affects him, but he'll stay up over-analyzing everything trying to figure out what he did wrong."

"Great, thank you for telling me that, Chloe," Beca said, rolling her eyes and letting out a breath as they went into the chair pose.

"God, we just did this one," Chloe said as they went back into the standing forward bend, and then into the head-to-knee forward bend. "Oh good, we're sitting."

"You think he's really freaking out?"

"Just talk to him. Don't be a bitch."

"I'm not being a bitch."

"You're always a bitch," she said pointedly.

At that point, the yoga instructor banged the gong she had and gave Chloe the dirtiest look Beca has ever seen, and Beca's seen quite a few in her day.

"There's no sign that says no talking," Chloe said angrily.

* * *

"How was the wedding you went to last week with Beca?" Tom asked as they went over the sheet music Jesse was working on.

"It was Amanda Pearson's wedding," Jesse said and nodded at Tom's shocked face. "Yeah. Those Pearsons."

"Was she there?"

"Of course she was there," he rolled his eyes. "Tried talking to me to like we were okay."

"Was Beca with you?"

"Oh yeah," Jesse said, chuckling a bit. "She had a few words for Marissa."

"Only a few? Doesn't sound like the Beca I know."

"Yeah, well, I intervened. I didn't want her to get in trouble with work."

"That would have been an awesome fight though."

"I kissed her," Jesse said and Tom almost spit out the coffee was drinking all over the sheet music.

"You what?"

"I kissed Beca."

"Did she punch you?"

"No, she hasn't spoken to me since, actually," Jesse said. "I don't know what to make of it. I keep thinking I did something wrong."

"When Beca doesn't know how to handle something, she ignores it until she's almost positive it's forgotten about and then she'll go back to normal."

"So she doesn't deal with anything, at all."

"You've been living with her for three months, you haven't noticed that?"

"There's nothing we've really had to deal with."

"I'm sure she'll get over it soon and it'll be like it never happened."

"I don't want it to be like it never happened though," Jesse said, just as Bumper walked in.

"Like what never happened?"

"Jesse kissed Beca," Tom said.

"Dude!" Bumper yelled. "You're falling for your wife! You can't do that!"

"I am not falling for Beca," Jesse said defiantly. "I'm just saying, it happened, so why not acknowledge it happened?"

"Because Beca's a bitch. You know that, I know that, the whole fucking world knows that. Wait out the three months, split the money, and you're done," Bumper said, suddenly looking thoughtful. "You could always get her to cheat on you, then we could get all the money."

"No, not happening," Jesse said, glaring at Bumper. "No cheating is happening from either of us."

"Because you're falling for her. God, that's disgusting."

"No, because cheating is fucked up and the both of us know how it feels."

"Yeah, that's not going to work," Tom said.

"That $2.5 million isn't even going to be that much after taxes and shit are taken out. You just _had _to go and get married."

"Don't you have other people to annoy?" Jesse said frustratedly.

"Yeah, I guess," Bumper shrugged. "Catch you on the flipside, motherfuckers."

"There's something wrong with him," Tom said when Bumper left. "Was he dropped on is head as a child?"

"I really think so," Jesse sighed. "Maybe I should just ask her about it."

"You should let her make the first move, it's safer."

"What is she? A hippogriff?"

"Definitely use those Harry Potter references around her, that'll go over big time," Tom rolled his eyes.

* * *

"Hey Jesse," Beca said quietly as she got home and headed to her room. Jesse stared at her in shock, since she hasn't spoken one word to him since they kissed. Maybe she thought he forgot about it, but he didn't. He didn't want to.

"Beca, can we talk?" Jesse called from the couch and Beca froze in her room as she started taking off her sweatshirt.

"Uh, I'm kind of gross from yoga," she said, trying to get out of it.

"I don't care."

"Of course you don't," she sighed as she walked out in her black sports bra and yoga pants. "What?"

"Uh, how was yoga?" he said, momentarily distracted by her clothing.

"Chloe got yelled at for talking," she said and eyed him questioningly. "That's really what you wanted to ask me?"

"No," he shook his head. "I wanted to talk about the wedding."

"Yeah, I don't really want to talk about that."

"We can't just ignore it."

"I can," she nodded.

"I know you can, you ignore everything," he sighed. "Beca, we kissed."

"No, you kissed me," she corrected.

"Regardless. We can't just ignore it."

"Like I said, I can just ignore it."

"Okay, well I don't want to ignore it."

"It was a mistake, Jesse. Just forget it, it's not a big deal."

"I don't think it was a mistake, Beca," he said. "I don't regret it."

"Now that we got that out of the way," she said, going to walk away but he stopped her. "Come on, Jesse."

"Why can't we talk about it?"

"I don't even want to acknowledge it happened. Nothing else can happen between us, so why make that kiss into a big deal?"

"Why not?"

"Because it'll just make things messy. We have three more months together before we're granted the annulment and we go our separate ways. I don't want to do anything that's going to mess that up."

"I guess," he said. "It wasn't a mistake though."

"I know," she said, nodding a little. "But it won't happen again, got it?"

"Got it," he said. "Wanna watch a movie with me?"

"I most likely will fall asleep on you."

"That's fine with me," he said with a smile, pulling her over to the couch and starting the movie that was in the DVD player.

* * *

**The yoga class scene from 27 Dresses is probably my favorite part of the whole movie because Casey (the best friend of Katherine Heigl, if you haven't seen it) is freaking hilarious.**

**Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, let me know what you thought :)**


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter Twelve**

* * *

"Don't forget, the wedding party is tonight," Chloe said as she passed by Beca's cubicle.

"What the hell is a wedding party, Chloe? You had your engagement party and your bridal shower. And you just booked your bachelorette party."

"It's another party to celebrate my upcoming nuptials to the love of my life," she rolled her eyes

"That was good. Can I use that in my next article?"

"Haha," she said sarcastically. "But seriously, it's going to be a lot of fun."

"As long as alcohol is being served, I'm there, buddy."

"There's going to be karaoke too."

"No," Beca said firmly. "Absolutely not. I am not singing."

"But you _have_ to," she whined. "It'll be like the old days at college."

"No. I don't want to relive those days."

"We were awesome."

"Whatever you say," Beca rolled her eyes. "It's not happening."

"Beca," the receptionist said when she called Beca over the intercom. "Your husband is at the front desk."

"Oh, your _husband_," Chloe said with a wink. "Two months left of that, unless you change your mind."

"Shut up, Chloe," Beca said, walking away from her. She walked to the front and saw Jesse standing there. "What are you doing?"

"I got off from work early and wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch."

"It's four in the afternoon."

"Fine, then dinner," he rolled his eyes. "So?"

"Give me ten minutes to finish what I was doing and I'll meet you out here," she said before turning away. She walked back to her cubicle, ignoring the looks Chloe and Fat Amy were giving her, finished up her work quickly, grabbed her bag and went back to Jesse.

"Look, they're like a young couple in love," Chloe sighed. "I so called this."

"Took her long enough to realize she's had that sexy piece of man candy all to herself. She better be taking advantage of that," Fat Amy said.

"She's not, but we can dream," Chloe said.

* * *

"What's with the weird visit at my job, nerd," she said as they sat in a small Italian restaurant a few blocks away.

"I figured you'd be hungry," he shrugged. "We have the party tonight, which I don't think will be serving anything other than drinks."

"Fine by me," she said as she shoved a forkful of pasta in her mouth.

"Tom said Chloe rented a karaoke machine for the night."

"She's going to make me fucking sing something," Beca grumbled.

"You sing?"

"Chloe, Stacie, and I were in an acapella group back in college."

"You were a Barden Bella," Jesse said with a smirk. "Well, I'll be."

"Shut up," she said. "I got forced into it by my dad and Chloe popping into the shower on me."

"Chloe's not one for personal space, is she?"

"She doesn't even know what personal space means."

"If it helps, I was a Treblemaker at my college," he said.

"It doesn't help," she shook her head. "You just became that much more nerdier to me."

"Nerds are going to rule the world someday."

"That's a frightening world."

"Dr. Rose called me at work about rescheduling the session," Jesse said, trying to make conversation. "She said we seem to be making progress."

"From four and a half months ago, yeah," she nodded. "I was ready to put arsenic in your coffee."

"I knew you were trying to kill me!"

"You were irritating," she shrugged, smiling slightly. "I guess it hasn't been all that bad."

"We can leave this saying we're friends," he said. He wanted to be more than friends with her, though. He realized that after he kissed her. Somehow, Beca had crawled into his heart and stayed there. Bumper was right – he fell for his wife.

"That we can."

* * *

"God, Beca, he is so hot," Stacie practically moaned as she stared at Jesse in his black dress shirt and red tie that was tied loosely around his neck. "I swear, if you don't do _anything_ with him, I might have to break girl code and go after him myself."

"Yeah, okay," Beca scoffed, but feeling uncomfortable over how she suddenly became jealous. "Nothing's happening."

"You have like a month left of this. You need to sleep with your husband!"

"No, thanks," she rolled her eyes.

"Why not?"

"Because, we're friends," Beca said. "That's it."

"He kissed you, though. That means something."

"No, no it doesn't," she shook her head. "How do you know about that?"

"Chloe sent out a mass text," Stacie shrugged. "She was very excited."

"Of course she was," Beca grumbled.

"Hello ladies," Bumper said as he walked over to them.

"Oh look who it is, the Travelocity gnome," Stacie rolled her eyes.

"Okay, _stripper_, you are kind of a disgusting skank," Bumper said.

"Oh, thank you," Stacie smiled as she flipped him off before walking away.

"You think I got a chance with her?" Bumper asked Beca, who just laughed in his face.

"No, but you can try Fat Amy," Beca said and pointing toward her direction.

"You call her Fat Amy?"

"She insisted," Beca nodded. "Listen, she's nice and she'll have sex with about anything, so she's your best chance at getting laid tonight."

"Okay," Bumper nodded.

"Such an ass," Beca shook her head as she watched Bumper walk away and start talking to Fat Amy.

"Can I get you a drink, wifey?" Jesse said.

"Yes, you can get me a drink. You can also not call me that," Beca said as she walked over to the bar with him.

"Why not? I like it," he smirked as he asked the bartender for two beers. "We only have a month left of being married, so I want to get my fill of calling you wifey."

"A month left is even more of a reason for you to not start," Beca said as she took the bottle from him. "Thanks."

"Chloe really likes to celebrate her own wedding," Jesse said as he looked around at all the people. "And has some friend's who cannot sing at all."

"Just a matter of time before she comes over and drags me to sing. I'm hiding," she said.

"You're an awful hider," Jesse laughed as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "Here, she wouldn't expect you here standing with me like this. Plus, you're so tiny you're almost invisible right now."

"Haha," she said, punching him in the side. "Asshole."

"Haven't heard that one in a while," he said, rubbing his side.

"There you are!" Chloe said as she ran over to Jesse and Beca.

"Oh no, she's found us," Beca moaned, hiding her face in Jesse's chest. Jesse couldn't help himself as he smiled and pulled her closer.

"Come on, you two have to sing something," Chloe said as she pulled Jesse and Beca over to the song book. "One song, and I'll leave you two alone forever."

"Forever?" Beca said, raising an eyebrow at what her friend was implying.

"No, not forever. Just tonight in regards to singing. God, just pick a damn song," she huffed.

"I don't know," Beca shrugged as she skimmed through the book. "Anything?"

"Uh, how about this one?"

"Never heard of it," she said.

"Me either, but it's the only decent sounding duet. Unless you want to do Grease," he said with a smirk.

"Not indulging you in your strange movie reenactment fantasies," Beca said as she walked over to the DJ to tell him what song and that they needed the lyrics. "Let's go."

"Ready?" Jesse asked as the music began.

"Yeah, looks like you start."

[Jesse]

_You tell all the boys no_

_Makes you feel good, yeah_

_I know you're out of my league_

_But that won't scare me away oh no_

_You've carried on so long_

_You couldn't stop if you tried_

_You've built your wall so high_

_That no one could climb it_

_But I'm gonna try_

_Would you let me see beneath your beautiful_

_Would you let me see beneath your perfect_

_Take it off now girl, take it off now girl_

_I wanna see inside_

_Would you let me see beneath your beautiful tonight_

[Beca]

_You let all the girls go_

_Makes you feel good, don't it?_

_Behind your Broadway show_

_I heard a boy say please don't hurt me_

_You've carried on so long_

_You couldn't stop if you tried it_

_You've built your wall so high_

_That no one could climb it_

_But I'm gonna try_

_Would you let me see beneath your beautiful_

_Would you let me see beneath your perfect_

_Take it off now boy, take it off now boy_

_I wanna see inside_

_Would you let me see beneath your beautiful tonight_

[Beca and Jesse]

_I'm gonna climb on top your ivory tower_

_I'll hold your hand and then we'll jump right out_

_We'll be falling, falling_

_But that's okay_

_Cause I'll be right here_

_I just wanna know_

_Would you let me see beneath your beautiful_

_Would you let me see beneath your perfect_

_Take it off now boy, take it off now girl_

_Cause I wanna see inside_

_Would you let me see beneath your beautiful tonight?_

_Tonight, see beneath your beautiful_

_Oh, tonight, we ain't perfect, we ain't perfect_

_Would you let me see beneath your beautiful tonight?_

The song stopped and Jesse and Beca stared at each other, unable to break eye contact. That song hit home for both of them.

"Great song choice," Beca mumbled to herself, fumbling with the microphone awkwardly because she didn't know what else to do.

"Oh my God, that was amazing!" Chloe said, stumbling over to them.

"Yeah, thanks," Beca muttered.

"We're going to head home now," Jesse said, taking Beca's hand in his as he led her out of her bar. "Do you want to go home?"

"Yeah, home is good," she nodded, feeling her stomach clench from stress because she knows he's going to say something to her.

They walked into the apartment in silence and she sat down on the couch. Jesse paced a bit around the living room before sitting.

"Why aren't we really trying to make this work?"

"We're trying."

"No, I mean like actually trying. Why aren't we together?"

"Because we just want the money," Beca said simply.

"I wanted that, but now I don't know anymore," he said.

"Jesse," she sighed. "We've gone through this."

"I know, but you're wrong. It can work. We can work."

"No, we can't," she shook her head.

"Please, Beca," he whispered as he held her face in his hands. "I know you want this, but you're scared."

"You're going to hurt me," she said quietly. "Everyone does."

"I won't, I promise," he said and he kissed her.

He was right, she did want this. At first, Beca had no intentions of even speaking to Jesse, but little by little she started to fall for him. She's not in love or anything like that, because she doesn't do love, but she likes him a lot more than she's liked anyone else.

Beca grabbed the front of his shirt to bring him closer and he moved his hands from her face, one going into her hair and the other to her waist.

"Jesse, I can't," she said, pulling away from him. "We shouldn't."

"Yes we should," he said, going to kiss her again but she pushed on his chest. "Why not?"

"Because one thing is going to lead to another," she said and he knew what she was implying.

"No, it won't," he said, placing a kiss on her forehead. "You know I wouldn't."

"Jesse," she said, but knew any argument she tried would just be lame excuses to keep herself from something she really wanted. "Nothing more than this."

"Whatever you want," he said, pulling her close and kissing her again.

* * *

**The song is **Beneath Your Beautiful by Labrinth ft. Emeli Sande**. It's a really pretty song, and I thought it was fitting for them.**

**So, I am probably going to finish this story by the end of next week. In two weeks I won't be able to update, and I want to get this story finished before then. **

**Leave a review, let me know what you all thought. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, especially the ending ;) lol.**


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen**

* * *

After that night, they actually tried. Jesse started meeting Beca at work more often to pick her up and they'd go to dinner. She'd actually make more of an effort to stay awake during her movie-cation (although, Star Wars did absolutely nothing for her and she passed out asleep within the first ten minutes). She hadn't slept in her own bed since that night, either. They haven't slept together yet, because she was still scared, but Beca loved waking up in the mornings and having Jesse's arms wrapped around her, pulling her close to him. She never thought she'd become _that _girl, but she did. Which is a problem, since their six months is almost up.

"Jesse," she whispered in his ear when she woke up.

"Jesse's sleeping, Beca should be too," he said sleepily as he rolled over, pulling her with him.

"Beca has work," she laughed.

"Don't go to work," he said, waking up a bit more now and moving so he was hovering over her.

"Gotta go," she said, scrunching her nose a bit. Jesse found it adorable whenever she did that and couldn't stop himself from placing a kiss on her nose.

"We have a few minutes, I suppose," he said, leaning down and pressing his lips against her neck. She squirmed a bit and laughed breathlessly as he kissed her.

"Jesse," she whispered as he ran his hands up and down her sides, slowly pushing up her shirt.

"Beca," Jesse half sighed, half moaned as her fingernails scratched up and down his abs gently. "Don't go to work."

"I have to," she said, looking up from under him. "Bad timing, I guess."

"Tonight?" he suggested. "I mean, obviously if you don't want to."

"We'll see," she said with a smirk as she kissed him once more before moving away from him.

Jesse was the happiest man alive. Things were actually going well between him and Beca, and he never wanted it to end. He's been trying to think of ways to ask her about possibly not going through with the annulment, but he wasn't sure of the best way to ask her to stay his wife, since he knew she was dead set against marriage.

"Beca, are you dressed?" he said, knocking on the bathroom door so he could brush his teeth. He heard what sounded like an 'mhm' come from her, so he opened the door and froze when he saw her standing there in the same black bra and boyshorts she was wearing the first time they saw each other half-naked. He knows it's the exact same set because he's had that image of her ingrained in his mind. "Uh, I can wait?"

"No, it's fine," she said, moving over by the sink so he could brush his teeth.

"It's like we've finally become an old married couple," he joked, but hoping this was a good opening to the conversation he wanted to have with her.

"We're not old," she said, shaking her head.

"But we're a married couple."

"Obviously, nerd," she said, rolling her eyes. "Where have you been the last six months?"

"Not six months yet."

"Two more weeks and it's over," she said with a small nod. "Surprised we lasted this long."

"Think we could last longer?" he tried.

"Don't know. Guess we won't know," she said with a tiny shrug. Jesse felt his heart sink a bit. "You done? I got to finish getting ready for work."

"You can take off," he said, bumping her with his hip because he didn't think he could control himself if he actually touched her while she was wearing minimal clothing. "Then you won't have to finish getting ready."

"Out, nerd," she said with a smile as she pushed him out the door.

Jesse sat on the bed and waited for Beca to come out. When she did, she was dressed in a black pencil skirt and a dark purple button up shirt. She slipped on a pair of heels and walked past Jesse when he pulled her on top of him.

"Jesse," she laughed. "I'm going to be late."

"Have a good day," he whispered against her lips before kissing her. Her hands went into his hair as his wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer.

"I don't want to go to work," she said breathlessly when they pulled away.

"Gotta go," he repeated her words from earlier, kissing her one more time before letting her go. "See you later."

* * *

"Why are you so happy this morning, Flatbutt? Someone spike your coffee?" Fat Amy asked when Beca came into work.

"No," she said, trying to contain her smile, since any type of smile – especially in the mornings – was extremely unusual for Beca.

"It's because of Jesse, isn't it," Chloe said knowingly, smiling widely as she saw Beca blush and avoid her gaze. "I knew it! You're so happy with him, Beca. I don't think I've ever seen you this happy before."

"I don't think I've ever been this happy," she said quietly as she organized her desk. "It's just easy with him, you know? He doesn't push me and we get along really well lately."

"I knew you two were meant to be! I'm so happy," she said, but stopped. "The annulment is in two weeks."

"I know," Beca nodded. "I guess we'll just go from there."

"What if you don't go through with it?"

"I don't know," Beca said.

"What do you mean? Just stay married. You'll both have the money and you'll be living the life. Together. As husband and wife."

"Maybe," Beca said, thinking about it. She didn't want to have to leave Jesse after this, and staying married would just make sense, because that would be weird for them to start dating after all of this.

"It's the best thing to do," Chloe said with a smile. "Talk to Jesse about it later."

"Yeah, I think I will."

* * *

Jesse was singing quietly as he walked around the apartment, cleaning it a bit. He couldn't wait for Beca to come home so they could talk, maybe decide that this really was working and they could stay together. Even if she still wanted to go through with the annulment, he would come up with someway they could stay together. He didn't want to lose her.

He heard a knock on the door and paused for a minute to look at the clock. It was still early, and Beca wouldn't knock, so he wasn't sure who it could be.

"Jesse!" Marissa said as he opened the door, throwing her arms around his neck to hug him.

"Um, hi?" he said, pulling her off of him. "Why are you here?"

"Well, I've been calling, but you've been ignoring my calls."

"Can't imagine why," he sighed as he looked at her. "Listen, I don't really have time for this."

"I miss you, Jesse," she said, getting straight to the point. "You were the perfect guy and I let you get away, and I'm sorry. I was stupid."

"Really?"

"I want us to try again."

"I'm married."

"You're getting an annulment though, right?"

"Well, yeah," he said, trailing off. "That's not the point though. How do you even know about that?"

"I overheard Bumper talking about it with someone," she said. "Sounds like a train-wreck of a marriage if you ask me."

"Fucking Bumper," Jesse groaned.

"We can try again," she said, taking his hands in hers. "After the annulment."

Beca had reached the door to their apartment and grabbed the doorknob, about to swing the door open until she heard a female voice tell Jesse they should try again. She peaked into the apartment as much as she could without alerting them to her presence.

"Marissa," Jesse sighed, and Beca's stomach dropped. His ex-girlfriend. His ex-almost fiancée. "I was hoping you would say you wanted to try again for so long."

"Really?" she said and Beca wanted to vomit. She shut the door quietly and walked down the hallway, trying not to cry. She didn't want to hear anymore. She couldn't handle hearing anymore.

"But then I realized how much better off I am without you," Jesse said, taking his hands from Marissa's. "I don't miss you anymore. I did, a lot, the first two months after you dumped me on my ass for your boss's son. Then I met Beca, and we drunkenly got married and were forced into this marriage for six months and I realized how much better I am with her."

"You don't mean that," she said.

"No, but I really do. I think you should leave. Beca will be home any minute," he said, showing Marissa to the door. "Thank you, though."

"For what?"

"For breaking up with me. Best decision you've ever made," he said as he shut the door in her face and feeling satisfied with himself as he sat down on the couch.

He wasn't so satisfied with himself anymore when he realized he's been waiting for Beca to come home from work for an hour already. He was getting a little worried, so he called her.

"_What?_" she said when she picked up.

"Hello to you too. Are you coming back to the apartment any time soon?"

"_I'll be back in a little bit. I have to start packing up my stuff anyway._"

"What, why?" he said, a little surprised since things have been going great. This was an unexpected turn in the wrong direction.

"_We have two weeks left of our arrangement. I've been looking for apartments, so I'll be out of your hair soon._"

"You don't have to leave so quickly. I really don't mind you being here. You know I want you here more than anything, Beca."

"_No, I wouldn't want to be a burden, especially when your ex comes over. Well, I guess she's not really your ex anymore_," Beca said, and Jesse could hear the sharpness of her words.

"My ex? What are you talking about?"

"_I know Marissa was at the apartment today. I heard you two talking. You're going to get back together. Congratulations, you're a bigger idiot than I gave you credit for_."

"Beca, I'm not back with Marissa."

"_I know what I heard, Jesse._ _Don't bother. It's fine. We go back to our normal lives after this, the both of us just a little bit richer_."

"Beca," he sighed.

"_I don't know how I could have ever been so stupid to think this could actually work. I feel like such an idiot, and I don't like being seen as the idiot._"

"You're not an idiot. Beca, I swear, I'm not back with her."

"_You promised, Jesse._"

"Beca," he tried again, but he heard beeping on his phone and he knew she hung up on him. Well shit.

* * *

"All right," Judge Finch said. "We've made it to the six month mark. Dr. Rose, what is your professional opinion on this couple?"

"They both have a lot of issues that need to be worked out, and I swore at one point I thought Beca was going to kill him," Dr. Rose said and Jesse couldn't help but smile a bit, until he looked over at Beca and saw the pain in her eyes and the smile was gone. "They're completely different in every way, but I think they're a real couple."

"Well, look at that. A little hard work and TLC, we have a happily married couple," Judge Finch said, obviously oblivious to the discomfort both Jesse and Beca were feeling. "So, what are we going to do?"

"Your Honor," Bumper said. "My client has decided it will be okay to split the money," he sighed. "Equally."

"We've come to an agreement as well. This is fantastic. Mrs. Swanson, is that okay with you?"

Jesse looked over and saw Beca whispering something to Stacie, who looked shocked as she stood up.

"Uh, no, Your Honor, it's not okay," Stacie said and looked at Beca one more time before continuing. "My client just wants the annulment. She wants nothing to do with Mr. Swanson anymore."

"Okay," Judge Finch said, confused at the response. "Well, then I grant the annulment and the $5 million to Mr. Swanson. Court adjourned."

"Beca, Beca wait," Jesse said, chasing after her, but she didn't turn around. He just watched her walk out of his life, for possibly forever.

"Dude, I won!" Bumper said excitedly as he jumped on top of the table. "I'm lawyer, bitches!"

"Jesse," Stacie said awkwardly. "She wanted me to give this to you."

Stacie held out her hand, and in it was Beca's ring. Jesse stared at it before taking it from Stacie.

"Uh, thanks," he said.

"Give her some time. She just needs to sort through everything in her head right now."

"How much time?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Listen, I don't really know you and I want to cut your friend Bumper, but for some reason, Beca let her guard down around you. It'll work out in the end."

"I hope so," he sighed, looking down at the ring in his hand. "I didn't want this."

"I know. And for what it's worth, I don't think she did either," Stacie said, placing a hand on his shoulder before walking away, leaving Jesse alone with nothing but a ring and his thoughts.

* * *

**I know, not the ending everyone exactly wanted. However, there are three more chapters to go, so make of that what you will lol. I hope you all liked this chapter, though. Let me know your thoughts and reactions :)**

**Oh, I'm wondering if any of you watch Homeland on Showtime. I just finished Season 2 and I'm wondering if I'm the only one who was hoping Carrie and Quinn would end up together and that she'd get over Brody. If you don't watch it, are old enough to watch it, and have Showtime, then I highly recommend it lol.**


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter Fourteen**

* * *

"Chloe, where is she?" Jesse asked as he sat in Chloe's kitchen.

"I don't know, Jesse," Chloe said honestly. "She hasn't answered any of my calls. She quit her job at the Times, packed all her stuff up in a moving truck, and left."

"You have no idea where she is?" he said, rubbing his hands over his scruffy face. He looked like a disaster. He hasn't slept well since the annulment, which was three weeks ago.

"All I know is she drove down to her dad's a few days after you two were in court, but she's not there anymore," she said. "I wish I could tell you where she is. Just, give her some time. You're both hurting."

"I just wish she believed me that I didn't want to get back with Marissa."

"I know," Chloe said with a sad smile. "She's quick to close herself up when she thinks she's going to get hurt."

"I promised I wouldn't hurt her, and now look."

"It'll all work out in the end, don't worry. She'll be back for my wedding."

"Which is in four months," Jesse sighed. "What if by that time, I'm too late?"

"Don't think like that, Jesse."

"If you find out anything, can you please let me know?"

"Of course," Chloe nodded.

* * *

Beca stayed in Atlanta for two week as she made calls to LA to every record label she knew and found a decent apartment to live in. Living with Jesse for six months saved her enough money to afford to move back out to LA without risking everything she had. She explained her situation to the record label she had a phone interview with; she played some of her samples, and they loved her. She was happy, but not as happy as she was back in New York.

She waited a while to call Chloe. She didn't know what to say to her. She left without letting her know where she was going, and now months later, she didn't know what to do.

"_Hello_?"

"Chloe, it's Beca."

"_Beca! It's so good to talk to you. Where are you?_"

"I moved to LA. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to call, I just didn't know what to say."

"_I'm just glad you're okay_," Chloe said. "_How's LA?_"

"I got a job at a record label as a producer again. It's a great label too."

"_That's great, sweetie,_" Chloe said and paused. "_You don't sound that happy over it._"

"It's different out here now. I don't know."

"_You miss New York._"

"Yeah," she said.

"_You can always come back, you know. There are a lot of people here who miss you._"

"I don't know, Chloe," Beca sighed. "How is, uh, how's everyone?"

"_And by everyone you mean Jesse,_" Chloe said knowingly. Beca cursed inwardly, since she should have known Chloe would know.

"Uh, yeah. Just wanna make sure he didn't blow all the money yet."

"_He's been better_," Chloe said honestly. "_He misses you. A lot._"

"Well, I'm sure he's happy with Marissa."

"_Beca, he's not with her. You overheard the wrong end of a conversation._"

"I what?"

"_I knew I should have told you this earlier, but I know how stubborn you get when you're hurt so I gave you time, but then you disappeared and I had no way to contact you_," Chloe said with a sigh. "_Marissa showed up and wanted to get back together with Jesse, but he told her he was happier with you and wanted nothing to do with her_."

"That's not what I heard."

"_I know, but that's what happened. He's been worried sick about where you are. He hates being home because it just reminds him of you. He asks for you all the time._"

"Oh," she said, unsure of how to respond to that. "Well, I should get going."

"_I have your dress I have to mail to you, so you can get whatever else needs to be done before the wedding_."

"Okay," Beca said, giving Chloe her address before hanging up.

Beca closed her eyes and threw her cell phone next to her. She didn't know what to do know with what Chloe told her. Deciding to deal with it another day, she reached for the remote to the DVD player to watch the one and only movie she will probably ever really enjoy.

* * *

"_She's in LA_," Chloe said when she called Jesse. "_She called me to let me know she's settled out there and she's working for a record label as a producer._"

"She's got a new life out there now," Jesse said, defeat evident in his voice.

"_I can hear it in her voice that she's not happy_."

"She has her dream job back, living in her favorite city. She has exactly what she wanted in life."

"_She doesn't have you, Jesse_."

"She doesn't want me. Not anymore anyway."

"_Beca asked about you, how you were doing. I told her you weren't doing too well._"

"You make it sound like I'm dying."

"_She's obviously thinking about you, Jesse. Listen, she'll be here in a month. Don't give up just yet_."

"I don't know if I can wait a month," he sighed.

"_You've waited this long_."

Jesse was right, he couldn't wait a month. He called Chloe back and got Beca's information from her before booking a flight to California for tomorrow morning. Once he got to LA, he practically stalked Beca. He went to her apartment, but she wasn't there. Went to the record label she worked for, and she had just stepped out to lunch. Jesse was ready to call defeat when he went to the beach to think and re-evaluate the situation he was in and he saw her standing there.

"Beca," he called out and she turned around.

"What are you doing here?"

"Wanted to see if the Pacific Ocean was any different from the Atlantic," he shrugged.

"It's all water," she said before turning away from him.

"Do you plan on coming back to New York?"

"I'll be back for the wedding," she told him as she stood in the sand, staring out into the ocean. "I wouldn't miss Chloe's wedding for the world."

"I know," he said before taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. "But why don't you come back now."

"What's the point of coming back now?"

"So you can be with me," he said quietly, so quietly Beca almost missed it over the sound of the waves crashing on shore. "I miss you, Beca."

"Yeah, well," she said, unsure of what exactly to say to him, because she missed him too. A lot. She just didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

"Being married to you was the best six months of my life."

"We fought half the time, Jesse. And ignored each other," she tried.

"Not the whole time," he said, standing next to her and grabbing her arm to turn her. "The last two-three months, I really thought we could work out. That maybe we didn't have to go through with the annulment, that we could have stayed married."

"Well, we're no longer married. So we don't have to think about that now."

"Please, Beca, come home," he said once she finally looked at him and saw the tears building up in her eyes.

"I can't, Jesse. My life is here in LA now."

"Fine, then I'll come out here," he said, nodding with conviction. "I'll see if I can transfer to the company over here and I'll move out here to be with you."

"Don't do that," she said, closing her eyes and willing herself not to cry. "Please."

"You won't come back to New York, so I'll just have to come out here," he said, taking her hands in his. "I want to really give us a chance."

"Why?"

"Because, when we were married, I was able to be myself. I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I've never felt more comfortable around a woman before, and I don't want to lose you because I know I'll never have that feeling with someone else again. I don't want to be in another relatiionship with anyone but you, Beca. You're it for me."

Beca stared back out into the ocean again, turning away from him. She took a few minutes to collect herself, to think everything through. Did she want to go back to New York and try again? Sure, she finally got a job at a record label in LA, but she was sure they'd transfer her to their New York office. She missed it there; she missed Chloe, Stacie, and even Fat Amy. But most of all, Beca missed Jesse.

"I watched The Breakfast Club the first night I moved here," Beca said, startling Jesse since they stood in silence for so long. "From beginning to end."

"Really?"

"It's a pretty life-changing movie," she said with a small smile, turning around to face him. "I was such a bitch to you when we were married, but you didn't push me at all, in any way. You didn't push me to talk, and you didn't push me away. I've had people pushing my entire life, and it was nice being with someone who just gave me the time I needed."

"I don't want you to think I'm pushing you now," he said.

"I know," she nodded. "My lease is up in two weeks here."

"Really?"

"The record label I work for has a New York office that I should be able to get a transfer to."

"So you're coming home?"

"Is my bedroom still available in your apartment?" she asked with a smile.

"No, it's not," he shook his head, smirking as he took a step toward her and grabbed her face gently in his hands. "I think I could make some space for you in my bedroom, though."

"Even better," she smiled, standing on her toes as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "You're it for me too."

"Stacie gave me this," he said, pulling Beca's ring out of his pocket. "I think we should start fresh."

"No jumping back into married life?" she asked with a smirk as she took the ring from him.

"Not just yet. How about we start with you being my girlfriend?"

"I don't know," she said. "Sounds too normal. Especially for us, since we did things backwards."

"I could go all the way and knock you up. Then we'd really be starting backwards."

"Girlfriend sounds great, nerd," she said, smiling as she shoved him a bit. "That means I can't wear the ring anymore. I've grown rather fond of it."

"I'm sure you'll be wearing a ring again soon," he said, pulling her close.

"Maybe we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves," she said, resting her head on his chest, her arms wrapped around his waist. "I missed you. So much. You tell anyone I willingly admitted that though, your precious movie collection is getting rearranged."

"Don't worry, it'll be our little secret," he said, laughing a bit as he kissed her forehead. "And I thought you were just agreeing to get back together with me because of my money."

"_Our_ money," she said, rolling her eyes.

"That's right," he smiled. "What's mine is yours, baby."

"Shut up," she laughed, pulling him down for another kiss.

* * *

**So, it may seem like Beca gave in quick, but let's just keep in mind this chapter kind of spanned over a four month time frame. So really, she's had a lot of thinking and alone time to do in LA lol.**

**This website has been really slow for me lately, don't know why. I tried to respond to everyone's reviews, but I don't know if it went through or not. Hopefully my responses did though lol. Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Hopefully you all liked it, since many of you weren't too happy with me over the last one lol.**


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Last chapter before the epilogue :)**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen**

* * *

"Beca, I need you!" Chloe yelled from the bridal suite.

"Of course you do," Beca muttered as she carried her and Chloe's bouquets. "Why did I agree to this?"

"Because you're her best friend," Jesse said, holding the rest of the bouquets for the bridal party. "The real question here is why am I helping you do this?"

"Because you love me," Beca said with a smile.

"Ah yes, that's why," he said, leaning down to kiss her.

"Beca, hurry up!" Chloe yelled again as Beca opened the door and all but threw the bouquets at her.

"Calm your shit, Chloe," Beca said. "Anything else?"

"Yeah, you can leave Jesse alone and come in here."

"Uh, I'll be in in five minutes," Beca said as she shut the door and turned to Jesse.

"No, now," Chloe said, opening the door back up and pulling Beca inside. "You'll see him in a little bit."

"You're no fun," Beca rolled her eyes.

"If I have to be separated from my almost husband, you can be separated from your ex-husband now boyfriend."

"Fine, fine," Beca sighed.

Beca had gone back to New York once her lease was up and the transfer to the New York offices was official. She hadn't realized how much she missed the city until she landed at JFK Airport and saw Jesse standing there with a sign that had 'weirdo' written on it. As cliché as it was, she ran to him in excitement; jumping into his waiting arms and kissing him with everything she had. They've only been back together officially for a month and living together again for two weeks, but it was like nothing had changed between them when Beca moved back in. The only thing different was that the guest bedroom was now a makeshift studio for Beca to work at home.

"_Please_ tell me you're finally having sex with him, or so help me, Beca Mitchell, I will force you to do it," Stacie said. "I don't care how sick that sounds."

"Not that it's any of your business," Beca said with a smirk. "But my sex life is something you don't have to be concerned about anymore. Let's put it that way."

"Oh thank God," Stacie sighed. "You were honestly beginning to worry me. I thought you had some medical defect that you didn't want anyone to know about. Like teeth in your vagina."

"Dude, stop watching that movie," Beca cringed.

"Your boytoy is one hot piece of ass, though," Fat Amy said, her mouth filled with whatever food was being served in the bridal suite. "He's even hotter than the guys I had back home in Tasmania because he has teeth."

"Uh," Beca said, unsure of how to respond. "Thanks?"

"Beca, when you write the article for my wedding, you better be sober," Chloe said as she fixed her veil.

"But Chlo, I write all my best work when I'm completely trashed," she smirked as she helped her. "You look beautiful."

"You think?"

"Tom isn't going to be able to take his eyes off of you. No groom is ever able to take his eyes off his bride, I would know."

"I know, it's your favorite part of the wedding," Chloe said with a laugh. "I'm so glad you're back in New York. I really missed you."

"I missed you too," Beca said. "LA just wasn't home for me anymore."

"Strange how easily dreams and plans can change, huh?"

"Very strange," Beca nodded. "You ready to get married and have your commitment-filled dreams come true?"

"More than ever," Chloe said, smiling brightly. "Let's go."

* * *

"Are you ready?"

"To walk in there and head straight for the bar? Of course," she nodded.

"You look gorgeous," Jesse said, kissing Beca's temple as they waited for their names to be called by the DJ for the reception.

"You don't look so bad yourself," she smiled.

"I think they just called us," he said as they walked through the opened doors, laughing as everyone clapped. "This is insane."

"This is Chloe," Beca said. "That girl has had her wedding planned since the fourth grade. She told me when we were roommates. Tom had no idea what he was in for."

"They look so happy," Jesse said as they watched their friends walk in and head for the dance floor for their first dance.

"Yeah, they do," Beca said wistfully. "Let's go to the bar. We have speeches to give, and I do all my best work drunk."

"You realize every wedding we've gone too, including our own, we've been drunk at?" he said as they made their way over to the bar and Jesse asked for two beers.

"That's what the open bars are there for, duh," she rolled her eyes. "Weddings all the best times to make drunken bad decisions."

"We win on any drunken bad decision by getting married."

"Wasn't such a bad decision," she said with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess not," he said, wrapping his arm around her waist.

* * *

"The wedding was really nice," Jesse said as he walked with Beca outside of the reception hall.

"Yeah, one wedding article I won't mind writing."

"Allie Hamilton making a re-appearance?" Jesse smirked.

"Just this once," Beca said with a smile. "I promised Chloe, and Aubrey said it was okay."

"If it's anything like your maid of honor speech, I'm sure it'll be great," Jesse said and laughed.

"Maybe I drank a little _too _much before that speech," Beca said, laughing along with him. "You were a little grabby there when you slid the garter up my leg, buddy."

"I just can't keep my hands to myself when I'm around you," he said, nudging her a bit. "You still have the garter?"

"No, Chloe insisted I give it back," she laughed.

"I'm really glad you came back, Beca," Jesse said, reaching down between them to grab her hand, lacing their fingers together.

"Me too," she said. "I didn't have a nerd annoying me at all hours of the day."

"Yeah, I really missed your surly attitude. Gave me a daily reality check."

"I wish I never came back to the apartment early that day," she sighed. "Things would have been different."

"Well, maybe it's a good thing," Jesse said and Beca gave him a questioning look. "If you didn't leave, you wouldn't have gotten your producing job back. You still would have been working for Aubrey."

"I guess," she said, never thinking of it in those terms. "But we would have been together if I didn't leave. I was going home to talk to you about not going through with the annulment."

"Really?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"We're together now, though. That's what counts," he said, lifting their hands and pressing a kiss against her knuckles. "Plus, maybe our time apart made us realize that what we felt was real. That it wasn't just a result of living together for so long."

"I guess," she shrugged. "But you're right. We're together now."

"And I've never been happier," he said, stopping and turning to face her. "What about you? Are you happy?"

"Of course I am," she said.

"You think we could be happier?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"I think we could," he said, moving and getting down on one knee. He pulled out a small black box and opened it, revealing an engagement ring. "I really miss being able to call you my wife, and know that I'm your husband. We can have as long as an engagement as you want, since we kind of missed out on that the first time around, so don't freak you. Will you marry me? Again?"

"Jesse," she said, trying not to cry. "I do want to be married to you, again."

"No Vegas bachelor or bachelorette parties," he said as he slipped the ring onto her finger and stood up to kiss her. "No good comes from that place."

"I don't know, I think some good came out of it," she said, smiling at him.

"This was a fluke. We're lucky no one got handcuffed to a bed and covered in peanut butter, left to be found by the maids," he said seriously.

"Got me a new ring I see," she said and laughed a bit. "I was rather fond of Marissa's."

"Always said I was going to get you your own ring," he said, wiping the tears away from her face. "Should we go tell everyone the good news?"

"No, Chloe will kill the both of us if she found out our engagement date is the same as her wedding anniversary. Everyone can wait until tomorrow," she said, taking a step closer to him. "Right now, I want to celebrate with my fiancé."

"I like the sound of that," he said, leaning down to kiss her. "I love you."

"Love you too."

* * *

**As usual, I hope you all liked this chapter. Let me know what you thought of it.**

**I know it's a little short, but I've learned that writing weddings really is not my thing, so that's pretty much why since this is Chloe's wedding day. To quickly clear up any possible confusion - the ring he gives her in this chapter is a new engagement ring, since it's the start of a new, better engagement and eventually marriage. The last chapter he gave her back the old engagement ring though, but that's not this one and she doesn't wear it on her left ring finger lol.**

**Quick side note, anyone who wants to see The Purge, I highly recommend it. I thought it was pretty good, not too long and not too scary but still suspenseful. Anyway, that's my randomness lol.**


	17. Epilogue

**Here it is, the last chapter. Hope you all enjoy :)**

* * *

**Epilogue**

* * *

"I hate wedding planning," Beca groaned as she face planted into a pile of invitations. "We should have just gotten married in Vegas again, so much easier."

"I know," Jesse said as he put a stamp on what felt like the hundredth wedding invitation. He didn't even know they knew this many people. "But I promised my mom she'd be there for the next wedding, and I don't think she'd appreciate a tiny, wedding chapel that smells like alcohol and regret."

"Sounds romantic to me," Beca smirked as she passed him another envelope. "Who the hell is getting invited to this anyway? I know for a fact I don't have this many friends."

"I've got a huge family," Jesse said. "Plus I think your dad invited a lot of his colleagues from Barden."

"Oh my," Beca said, stopping what she was doing. "Shit."

"Did you cut yourself?"

"No, I didn't tell my mom," she said, her face paling. "Oh my God. We sent out family invitations two days ago."

"And this is a problem why?"

"Do you not remember my revolving door comments for my mother?" she said. "She is so anti-anything commitment after my dad left. Why do you think I turned out this way?"

"You turned out fine," he said, taking her hand and kissing the back of it. "Call her."

"I could just pretend like it's a joke. Or someone else named Beca Mitchell is getting married."

"Or you could call her now and do damage control."

"I don't know," she sighed.

"Beca! Open up!" a woman yelled from the hallway, banging on the door and startling Beca half to death.

"Uh oh," Beca said as she got up. "I think it's too late to do some early damage control."

"Is that your mom?"

"Looks that way," she nodded as she looked out the peephole and saw a very unhappy Monica Porter, formerly Monica Mitchell, standing in the hallway.

"How did she find us?"

"There's a return address on all the invitations, dork," Beca said as she rolled her eyes and braced herself as she opened the door. "Hi Mom."

"Hello sweetheart," she said as she walked in and took a look around, taking in the wedding invitations scattered all over the kitchen table and Jesse standing awkwardly in the back. "So I guess this wasn't a joke?"

"Uh, no," Beca said as she walked over to Jesse. "Mom, this is my fiancé, Jesse Swanson. Jesse, this is Monica, my mom."

"Pleasure to meet you," Jesse said, holding out his hand to shake hers, but she just looked at it. "Wow, like mother, like daughter," he whispered to Beca, thinking of the very first time they met.

"Shut up," Beca muttered, nudging him in the side. "You know, you didn't have to come all the way to New York to give us your response. You could have called, or sent an email. Maybe a text message."

"After everything you've seen me go through, Beca. You really want to get married? All men are scum, sweetheart."

"No, Mom. They're not," Beca said defensively. "Jesse isn't."

"How do you know this marriage will even last?"

"It lasted six months," Jesse said and quieted when Beca smacked him in the chest to shut up.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"We might have accidently, drunkenly gotten married in Vegas and got an annulment that ended the marriage after six months."

"And you're choosing to get married again? You're stupider than I thought you were," she laughed dryly. "You saw what I went through when your father left, you want to put yourself through that?"

"You cheated on Dad. That was your fault, you just won't take responsibility for it," Beca said. "You let yourself self-destruct. Dad didn't have anything to do with that."

"He should have stayed. He had a family to support."

"You should have kept your legs closed!"

"Don't talk to me like that, Beca."

"Listen," Beca said, taking a calming breath. "I love Jesse, and he loves me. I don't care if you approve of this marriage, because it doesn't concern you."

"You're making a mistake, Beca," she warned.

"No Mom, for once I'm actually doing the right thing," she sighed. "I think you should go. You have time to respond for the wedding. There's a little card you send back. No need to make another trip over here."

"Nope, here's my response," she said, ripping up the invitation. "Have a nice life. I hope you prove me wrong."

"We will prove you wrong," she said, closing the door when she left. "Well, that's one less plate to pay for."

"Are you okay?" Jesse asked, walking over to Beca and grabbing her by the arms.

"That was nothing," she shook her head. "I'm fine, Jesse."

"Maybe she'll come around."

"She won't," Beca said shortly. "She's stuck in her ways and she doesn't care if I'm the happiest I've ever been. All she sees is that I'm getting married, and marriage is a mistake in her eyes."

"Well, like you said, we'll prove her wrong," he said, leaning down to kiss her.

* * *

After getting all the invitations out, and dealing with her mother, the next step for Beca was to pick out her wedding dress and the wedding dresses for the bridal party. Another problem.

"Beca, you can't pick out black dresses for you wedding," Chloe said as she stood in the dressing room in a short strapless dress.

"Why not?"

"Because it's a wedding, not a funeral."

"Seriously, Chloe, what color did you honestly expect?"

"Pink?"

"That's funny," Beca said sarcastically as she stepped out in the wedding dress she had picked out. "What do you think?"

"That's dress is beautiful," Chloe said. "You look gorgeous, Beca."

"You really think so?" she asked, twirling around in the white strapless dress. The tulle, ballroom skirt flared out around her.

"I'm surprised you picked that out on your own. You look like a princess."

"I don't know. I liked it for some reason," she smiled. "You're wearing the black dress."

"Can't you go with some type of color," Chloe whined. "How about dark purple?"

"Black."

"Charcoal grey?"

"Stop trying to negotiate, it's my wedding," Beca rolled her eyes.

"You know, I have a black dress just like this one," Stacie said as she admired herself in the mirror. "Black is really unforgiving though."

"What? Black hides everything."

"Not certain types of stains, if you know what I mean," she said with a wink before going back in the dressing room. Beca and Chloe looked at each other, disgust evident on their faces when they figured out exactly what type of stains Stacie was talking about.

"So, see any dark purple dresses around?" Beca asked. Chloe just nodded rapidly before rushing over to the racks to find a new dress.

* * *

"Beca," Chloe said as she knocked the door and let herself in. "You almost ready?"

"Almost," she said, looking back in the mirror.

"I have something for you," she said, sitting down at the couch in the room. She placed the decorated shoebox on her lap and opened the lid. "Something old – your original engagement ring."

"You would give me this," Beca laughed as she took the ring from her. "Jesse does have good taste on rings, I have to give him that."

"I thought it would be funny and appropriate," she said, laughing with her. "Something new, this bracelet that all the girl's bought for you. Something borrowed, my garter from my wedding that Jesse had caught. And something blue, your Bella scarf."

"Chloe," Beca said, trying not to cry because she had a shit ton of make-up on that she didn't want to ruin. "Thank you."

"I'm so happy for you, Beca," she said, hugging her. "You've always deserved all the happiness in the world, and you're finally going to get it. Plus, you're having a way nicer wedding than I did because your freaking loaded."

"Never would have thought a drunken marriage in Vegas would lead to this," Beca said, laughing a bit as she carefully wiped at the tears that were forming in her eyes. "To Jesse of all people."

"Fate works in mysterious ways," Chloe said with a smirk. "Everyone's just waiting on you. So, you ready?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

Beca took her spot behind the bridal party, linking arms with Luke, since he insisted he had to walk her down the aisle.

"You don't look half bad there, sis," he said.

"Yeah, you don't clean up so bad yourself," she said. "Thanks for doing this, Luke, even though you're the one who insisted on it. I'm really glad the she-devil had you."

"Thanks, me too," he laughed. "So, that bridesmaid up in the front with the brown hair. She seeing anyone?"

"Stacie?" she asked and he shrugged, not knowing her name. "No, she's single."

"I would like to rip her dress to shreds with my teeth," he said as he stared at the back of Stacie's head.

"You're disgusting," Beca said, rolling her eyes. "Don't defile anything during my wedding, please."

"Fine. Only because you're my favorite sister."

"I'm your only sister, dickhead."

"And that's why you're my favorite."

She waited as everyone made their way down the aisle before her. Finally, it was her turn. She locked eyes with Jesse and smiled at how he was looking only at her, like there was no one else in the room.

And for once, she didn't pity the groom who was patiently waiting for his bride to each the end of the aisle. No, she was happy for him, because Beca knew this wouldn't be the last time he would look at his bride like that. No, she knew she would get a lifetime of those looks, knowing that Jesse's feelings for her would never change.

* * *

**And that's the end. Let me know your thoughts, feelings, etc. Can't believe I finished this in a little over a month. That may be a new record lol.**

**I hope you all enjoyed it. I really liked writing this story, I liked the concept lol.**

**I want to thank everyone who has consistently reviewed, as well as the people who have randomly reviewed. It all means a lot to me, I never expected this story to get a response like this. I really appreciate it all.**

**So, since most of you are readers from my other story Barden & Beyond I think you will like this news. I think I'm going to write a sequel. I've been working on a few ideas, and I really have to get to writing the new chapters, but I think it's a definite. Possibly a definite, if that makes sense lol. I usually don't do sequels, but I just really loved that story and there was a lot of potential for a sequel. There will be repeated chapters, but just a couple.**

**Also, I just came up with a new story idea. Once again, it's a combination of two movies (hope you all don't mind lol). I won't say which two, but I think everyone will like it. I thought of it the other night and I can't get it out of my head now. It probably won't be long, and I want to have a majority of it done before I post it so I can keep up with quick updates.**

**I'm most likely going to do both, since I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands because I'm getting surgery, so be on the look-out for both of them.**

**Once again, thank you to everyone :D**


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